My Final Fantasy
by Swordmaster Of The Setting Sun
Summary: Me an my friends get sent into the world of Final Fantasy 1. Please rate and review. Sorry in advance for the first few chapters sucking.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Final Fantasy, it's character's or anything in this story and I am in no way related to square enix. This is purely fanmade.

_My name Is Bram Ennis, although don't be fooled by the spelling, it's pronounced "Brom." I'm a 14-year-old guy living in Kentucky though I'm usually considered a freak in my own way. One unpredictable day, I won a contest for four tickets to a ten-day cruise. My parents were going away for a few of those ten days to drive my sister to summer camp with her friends. So I was allowed to bring some of my friends instead. My friend Donald was asking if he could come and bring his girlfriend, Jordan. I agreed to let him come along because his parents rarely let him out of the house to spend time with anyone. He then got the OK from his parents, which surprised me, and invited Jordan to come along. _

_The next few days were hectic because everyone was calling me asking if they could come along as well. Each one of them tried to bribe, provoke, and even threaten me to bring them along. I was about to just give up and call off the trip when I met up with my friend Alishia. I thought she too was going to try everything possible to get me to take her. Though, she had no intention whatsoever of even asking. I took this as a huge break because it made it a lot easier on who to choose. _

_So I asked her the next day if she would come along and she happily agreed to come. I was excited, because if she had refused then I have to either choose one of the others who just wanted a vacation or give it all up. The next day, a bus came to pick the four of us up and drive us to California. There, a boat would be waiting for us. Little did we know, this vacation would be a lot more than we expected._

[Chapter 1 ]

[The Vacation Takes an Unexpected Twist]

We would have to ride on the bus for three days before we arrived at the boat so we were all talking about what we expected. After a while I said,

"I hope none of us get sea-sick."

Donald then responded, "Wouldn't it be cool if we got attacked by a giant monster or something?"

We all looked at him strangely. Donald was black, the oldest, and the shortest of us. He wasn't always the brightest of anyone socially but he was awesome at the work we had to do in school. His parents rarely ever let him out of the house, so he got excited and lost control every time he was able to go somewhere. It was only natural that he would say something like that. Regardless the responses were that of "Yes, that would be cool," or "It would be interesting."

Alishia didn't talk much the way there. She mostly just read some of her books the whole way. Alishia had pale skin and was the same age as me but she was one year behind the rest of us in school. She had black hair that she occasionally died a grayish color. This was the first time she actually met Donald and Jordan so she didn't know what to expect. When Donald made that comment she quietly asked, "Does he get out much?" I just shook my head.

Jordan, for the most part, talked to Donald. She was Donald's girlfriend but, because Donald didn't get out much, they never really hung out with each other. She was taller than Donald and Alishia with tanner skin and dark hair. She was also the second oldest even though she acts like a little kid. I thought this trip would let them have some time together before school started again.

I mostly just wondered about what the boat will be like and how nice the crew would be. I had always hoped to sail on a boat with some of my friends but I felt like the joy of the cruise would be short lived. I was the tallest of the group with short brown hair. Contrasting to my tallness, I was the youngest. I also appear to be the most athletic when I'm actually the least of all. I spend most of my time reading books or playing games.

Overall, I didn't think I would actually win the cruise. I was just watching a show with my family one night and saw a commercial about winning a cruise for four people. My thought was to just send in a postcard for the heck of it and then I actually won. With single postcard. At that moment, I immediately knew that there was a catch to it all.

On the second day of the bus ride I pulled out the letter that I had received in the mail. It had outlined the schedule for the entire trip and had the exact times on the back. I then read it aloud to everyone,

"Congratulations to you, Mr. Bram Ennis, for winning this spectacular cruise for four. You will be picked up by a bus and taken to California where you will board the Legend (we all could only assume that the 'Legend' was the name of the ship). You and your friends will sail on this ship for five days before turning around to go back to the main land. Before setting sail, you and your friends will leave behind all of the belongings you brought. They are to be kept in a safe in the back of the bus. I am the only one who knows the combination and will be with you the entire time. I have provided everything you need on the trip. Make sure you all have the time of your lives.

Sincerely,

The Captain"

"I think we should go back." Donald said after hearing the letter, "It sounds like they're trying to rob us right under our noses. And why did that guy only tell us he's 'The Captain'. It just seems too weird too be true." I replied,

"I thought it was a scam too but it seems a little too obvious if they were trying to rob us. That's why if I get enough evidence of them trying to rob us, I'll cancel the trip immediately!"

"How will you get enough evidence? Won't we be leaving as soon as we get there?"

"Actually no. We will leave at exactly noon. According to the time schedule, we will arrive at 9:00 a.m. and have an interview with him."

Alishia joined us and asked,

"He's going to interview us?" I respond,

"No, we interview him." They all look at me like I'm crazy.

"I'm telling the truth. It says right here that we will interview the captain." I show them the time schedule and point to the spot that says '9:00a.m - 9:30a.m: Interviewing the captain.' They all nod and Donald agrees to leave it to me to decide if we should go or not.

Finally we arrive to our destination in California and tension surrounds each of us as we drive to the port. We all wonder what the captain will be like, how the boat is designed, and what we'll do on the boat. Suddenly, the bus screeches to a stop at exactly 9:00 a.m. and we hesitantly get off the bus. As we exit the bus, we meet a tall man wearing a blue coat, a black shirt, and blue jeans. He had messy long black hair and glaring eyes that seem to say "Don't mess with me". I really had hoped we wouldn't have to talk to this guy. Unfortunately, he then bowed and welcomed us in a cold, harsh voice, "Welcome, Mr. Bram Ennis and friends, to the Legend."

He said my first name wrong and all my friends laughed so I corrected him by saying, "It's pronounced like Brom."

"Yeah, whatever. Well, what do you say we get some introductions underway? You may call me Captain and Captain only. I will not reveal my name under any circumstances, got it?" We stare at him blankly.

"GOT IT!?" He yelled loudly. We all respond in unison,

"Yes sir!"

"WRONG!!!" That shocked us. "You say, 'Aye Captain.' Got it?"

"Aye Captain!" I stated first. Then my friends reluctantly replied,

"Aye Captain."

"Not bad, not bad. But it could use more enthusiasm next time! Got it?"

"Aye Captain!" Each of us shout on cue.

"OK. Now..." He points at Donald, "You there!!! Introduce yourself and ask any ONE question you want to know about me."

"My name is Donald and I am 15 years old. As for the question I would like to know, it's how long you've been a captain."

"Well I'll have you know, Duck Boy, I have been a captain for fourteen years now."

"D–DUCK BOY?!" Donald exclaimed; Captain had really crossed the line with that comment. Donald get's insanely mad if people call him a duck in some way. It took us a long time to calm him down.

"Well now..." Captain grumbled while pulling out a silver pocket watch. "It seems we don't have long until we have to set sail." He then pointed to Jordan. "You're next!"

"My name is Jordan and I am 15 years old. I would like to ask how old you are exactly."

"I am 23 years old!" He replied

"You've been a captain since you were 9 years old?" I asked without thinking.

"Yes, and there goes your question Mr. Bram" He said my name wrong again. Then he started to point but was interrupted by Alishia.

Alishia started, "My name is Alishia and I am 14 years old. I would like to ask if-"

"Times up!" Captain cut her off, "If there are any other questions then you may ask now. None? Good! Then let's set sail!"

"I would like to finish my question." Alishia stated.

"I don't care, now come on!" He then snapped his fingers and four men dressed in ratty outfits came to push us to the boat.

I then said, "Well Donald, it looks like we were attacked."

"Too bad it was before we got on the boat." He replied.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: This chapter is longer than the last but it may be a bit too long for what happens in it. Please tell me what you think so I can try and fix it.**

[Chapter 2]

[The First Day]

After walking for about two hours, we finally arrived at the boat. I was the first to comment about it and asked, "These things are still made?" It was an old galleon that looks like it came straight from a pirate movie.

"Nope." Captain replied in a quiet, but still harsh, voice which surprised us all. "This ship is the last of it's kind, and better yet I'm the owner." He ended that statement with pride in his voice. We were then led on to the boat and I immediately felt nervous. There were a bunch of sailors on the boat who all looked like the were picked up off the streets. All of them were big and muscular with a furious look on their faces, but not as furious as the Captain's.

Captain then hollered to all of them, "Attention everyone!" I nearly went deaf because he was right beside me, and I mean right beside me. He then threw his hand down on my shoulder and tightened his grip to the point of almost crushing it. "This is Bram Ennis." Once again he said my name wrong before he continued, "He and his friends were the lucky winners of our little...'contest'." The way he said "were" really made me feel even more nervous than I already was. "I believe this is their first time on a ship like ours, so let's show them what it's like." The boat then started to rock a bit stronger and I noticed that the boat had been moving the entire time since we got on. I felt like I made a terrible mistake. Then the captain finally ended off by saying,

"Now let's give these kids an adventure they'll never forget!!!"

"Aye Captain!!!" All the sailors gruffly responded back in union.

The captain started to walk off then stopped when Alishia stepped forward. "Wait," she said, "why did you say contest like it wasn't really a contest at all?"

He then responded, "Because the only reason you won is that no one else entered."

"No way!" I yelled, "You expect me to believe, that out of millions of people who could have seen that ad, I was the only one who entered?"

"Pretty much." He responded like it wasn't a real shock at all.

"How can we trust you that you're not lying?"

"Because I never lie. It's one the few things you can trust about me."

"It's true," one of the sailors interrupted although he looked nervous at the captain and waited for a him to nod before he continued, "I've served Captain for ten years and I've never heard him lie once. Isn't that right guys?" He yelled to the crew.

"AYE!!!" They all responded.

Then he continued,

"He does occasionally like to mess with people and he is a...bit harsh sometimes." I assumed he was going to say that the captain was a jerk or something but he stopped for obvious reasons. Captain didn't seem like someone to really be bossed around but I wouldn't get in his way. Especially after he nearly deafened me and crushed my shoulder into a million pieces.

The sailor continued again, "Captain really gives us a hard time and he does push us to an extent that seems like he's torturing us. Though, he only does that because of a good reason and we have all had-"

Captain yawned extremely loud and stopped the man's speech. Captain then started to speak again, "This long winded fellow here is my 'first mate', you could say." He stared at the first mate. For a while, all we could hear were the waves that corresponded with the creaking of the boat.

Captain broke the silence, "Will you tell them your name already?!"

The man flinched, he then saluted and said, "My name is John, and you may refer to me as the first mate or vice-captain. Although, I would appreciate being called first mate."

"Well you all should know the drill." Captain stated, "Each of you ask him a question. Blah, blah, blah. If anyone needs me, or wants to listen to my beautiful voice, I'll be in my quarters."

"He's joking about the voice part, right?" Donald asked and then realized what he did before looking down in disappointment.

"Yes, he was joking, and don't worry, I won't count that as a question beings as it wasn't about me." John laughed. "Now then." He pointed at me, "You start."

I introduced myself and asked, "How long have you been the vi-, I mean, the 1st mate?"

"Too long my friend, too long." I was dumbfounded by the vague answer. "Next up is...." He pointed at Alishia, "You."

She introduced herself and asked, "What is your last name?"

"Hancock." He busted out laughing, "Just kidding, it's not really important."

John then pointed to Donald who, introduced himself, and asked, "Are you going to dodge all of our questions with vague answers?"

John then replied, "Maybe." John was smiling which told us he was enjoying this.

Jordan then introduced herself and asked, "How old are you?"

I expected him to give half an answer like he was doing for us but instead he answered, "I am 28 years old." We all stared at him and couldn't believe he was older than the Captain. He then told us to wait stay where we were and we did as he said. Later, he returned with four bags and handed one to each of us.

"These will be your outfits for the next few days. Please try them on as soon as you enter your cabin." John then led us below deck to our cabins. Jordan and Alishia shared a room on the first floor down while Donald and I got a room on the bottom floor.

I looked in my bag and was quite surprised. Inside was a blue robe and tall pointy hat that looked way too big for me. I slipped on the robe and Donald laughed at how ridiculous I looked. The sleeves were so long that my fingertips could barely even reach the end. The robe was also so long that some of it rested in a small heap around my feet, even with my astounding height. If that weren't enough, that hat was so large that it nearly covered my entire face. It took forever to position it in a way that it wouldn't fall off or swallow my head. After Donald stopped laughing, I said to him,

"Well if my outfit is so hilarious, why don't we check your's?"

Donald flinched and took out the contents of his bag. In it was a tight looking black vest and black pants that looked a few sizes too big for him. Luckily for him, there was a belt that came with it. He put it on and I noted how it looked like he was going to a funeral. I couldn't help but laugh. "What's so funny?" He asked. "I at least got a good outfi-"

I stopped him before he finished, "Dude, you're going to die from the heat in those clothes."

"What about you?" He asked.

"I at least I have this hat to keep me in the shade. Heck, I don't even have to worry about the sun in my eyes. Not to mention, these duds are big, even on me, so I don't have to worry about being choked to death." I acknowledge how tight the vest looks.

"Whatever." He put his hands in his pockets, "Huh? What's this?"

Donald pulled out a red hexagonal crystal tied to a chain. I checked my robes and found a blue one. We then put them on. The necklace wasn't really my thing so I hid it under my robes. Donald, on the other hand, couldn't stop looking at it.

"Come on." I said, "Let's go meet up with Jordan and Alishia. This rocking is making me sick anyways and I need to get some air."

"Ok." He said and looked a little nervous. I guessed this was his first time on a boat. He put his necklace in his pocket and we walked out.

After walking a little bit, we saw a man wearing a strange, deep red cloak. His face was covered up with a red scarf, that hid the lower half of his face and a long piece of red cloth that hid his entire forehead. All we could see were his eyes and his hair. His hair was long, neat, and jet black. He was reading a book with strange symbols on the front of it. As we passed he looked at us and we froze. His eyes were a dark yellow that seemed to burn my skin like hot daggers. We stood there for a while in silence until he said in a muffled voice,

"H-hello. M-my name is V-Virgil Veldeen. Y-you're two of the guests. R-right?"

I couldn't believe that he was nervous while talking to us so I said,

"Yeah, my name is Bram, and this is Donald."

He then grabbed and shook our hands with really wide eyes and said, in a now lighter tone,

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you two. Long have I awaited someone with as strange a name as mine." I couldn't tell if it was a compliment or an insult.

"Sorry Virgil, we're kind of in a hurry." I said.

"Oh, well, I see. May we meet again then."

"Yeah, maybe." Donald said.

I elbowed him for that remark and said, "We defiantly will." Virgil's expression changed, although I couldn't make it out behind his scarf. I guessed he was smiling, but I couldn't be sure. We left him as he began to read his book again.

After a while of a walking Donald said,

"Man what a freak. Don't you think?"

"It takes one to know one." I replied.

"Hah hah. You always did like the freaks."

"You know you just admitted you're a freak, right?" He stopped walking and hung his head.

"Yeah, well, he really takes the cake when it comes to being weird. Honestly, did you see the way he dressed and that book of his?"

"If you want to talk about being dressed weird look at us moron."

"Good point."

"Besides he seems like a nice enough guy."

"Whatever, let's just get to the deck already."

After walking some more we ran into John again. He saw us and said, "Hey, you two. What's up?"

I replied,

"Nothing, we just ran into Virgil Veldeen."

"Virgil Veldeen eh?" He rubbed his chin, "Weird guy."

"I agree." Donald blurted out.

"He was reading a strange book and was dressed-" I glared at Donald before he continued, "I mean, he was acting strange too."

"Well that's Virgil for you. Never one to be social, unless you got weird names or strange habits."

We took that as an insult but we let it go. I then asked if John had seen Jordan or Alishia.

"The two girls that came with you?" John thought for a second, "I think I saw them go to the deck. They didn't look too good either. They must've gone out for some air."

"That was our idea too." I said.

"Could you tell us if there is a faster way on deck? I think we got lost." John pointed down the hall. Donald and I thanked him before we walked down the hall.

After a bit of walking, we finally made it to the deck and saw Alishia and Jordan by the rail.

"HEY!" I yelled out of excitement. They looked over at us and we ran over to them.

Donald then said,

"It took us a while, but we finally made it."

They didn't say anything, they just looked at us and started to laugh. Then, we remembered we were still in our outfits.

"Oh yeah. I was wondering why it wasn't as bright out." I said while adjusting my hat. I glanced over at Donald who looked like he was going to die from the heat. It was then that I realized Alishia and Jordan were also wearing outfits. Jordan was garbed in a white robe with red trimmings on the sleeves and bottom. Her robe was similar to mine except she had a hood instead of an oversized hat. As I regarded her outfit a thought popped into my head. I checked my hat and said,

"It's a miracle this thing stays on my head."

"It looks like the perfect size for you." Said Jordan.

"Oh, hah hah. I'd like to see how it fits on you. In fact..." I took off my hat and put it on her head. Immediately, it swallowed her head and we all laughed. I then took my hat back and put it in the right position again.

"Those are still ridiculous clothes." Alishia said. Amazingly, Alishia's outfit was the least strange of all. She wore a white tank top, black shorts, and some boots. The only weird thing about her clothes were the long gloves she wore and the smaller pair of fingerless gloves she wore over that. I then said, without thinking, "You look like a farm boy."

That ticked her off a little and she said, "At least I don't look like a scarecrow." As she said that a seagull came and landed on my hat.

"Get off you stupid bird." I fought with it and chased it off after a while.

"Looks like you're out of crows" Jordan added to the joke.

"Forget about it already. Geez." Just then I remembered something.

"Did you two get one of these?" I pulled out my necklace.

Alishia checked her pockets and Jordan checked her robes. Alishia pulled out a yellow crystal and Jordan a green one.

"I see you found your gifts we gave you." We heard in a familiar harsh voice. We turned towards the voice to see the captain.

"Well then. I guess I should introduce you four to the people who will look after you for the next few days." He pointed to three people behind him, one of which was John.

"John you already know, of course." the captain said, "He will be looking after duck boy over there." Donald got ticked but let it go. Captain then put his hand on a girl's shoulder and said, "This is my little sister, Anna, and she will look after the boy with the long hair." He pointed at Alishia.

Anna then said in a quiet voice, "Um, she's a girl, big brother."

"Hm?" Captain squinted, "Oh, yes. I suppose she is. Next is Scarlet." Captain pointed to an old lady, "She will look after the other girl." He pointed to Jordan.

The lady named Scarlet came up and stared at me for a while. She then said in an old, tired voice, "You're a tall one aren't ya?"

Jordan then raised her hand and said, "I'm sorry but, I'm the only other girl."

Scarlet then put on a pair of huge glasses and said, "Sorry dear, I guess my eye sight isn't as good as it used to be." She then went and stood with the other four adults.

Captain then continued,

"Ahem. Next is.... um...." He looked behind him and counted everyone. "Where is the weird guy?" he asked John. John then entered through a door and dragged out another familiar person. Captain then continued,

"This weirdo here is-"

"VIRGIL!!!" I exclaimed, "See? I knew we would see each other again."

"Yes it seems you were right. I look forward to-" He started.

"AHEM!!!" Captain interrupted, "It seems you already know each other so I won't explain. Anyways, these four will watch you to make sure you stay out of trouble. Each of them have some very interesting skills to teach you as well, so feel free to learn anything you can from them." Although the idea of learning before school didn't appeal very much to us, I was interested in what Virgil could do.

The captain had ditched us when we weren't looking so we all learned about each of our temporary guardians. We already knew about John so we started with Scarlet. She was apparently the ships head doctor and had been aboard since Captain claimed the ship. Turns out, she was very wise when it came to making and applying medicine. Jordan was interested in this and eagerly wanted to learn from her.

"So you're the captain's sister, huh?" Alishia asked Anna.

"Yes, well, I am actually an adopted sister, but we treat each other like family all the same." Anna told us.

John then put his arm around her and laughed, "Although she's a lot nicer than the captain ever will be." Anna stiffened up when John touched her and looked very scared. She then grabbed his arm and threw him all the way across the deck. Immediately, she ran to the other end before he reached there, and then drop-kicked him back on the deck.

"Don't... ever... touch me...like that... again!" She was breathing heavily. We all stood there in shock except for Virgil, who was hiding behind the mast, and Scarlet, who didn't seem to even notice.

"Where did you learn to do THAT?!" Asked Alishia.

"My big brother taught me to do all kinds of things like that. Although, I'll never be as good as him." She said in an embarrassed tone.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Alishia asked.

"I think you should ask my brother."

"No way, he's a jerk."

"He is a little harsh but he's not a jerk."

"I still don't like him." After that, Anna agreed to teach Alishia how to fight.

Donald and I then went to help John. We offered to help him up but he just shook his head and said he was okay. When he stood up he didn't seem like he was even hit. Donald then asked, "Are you used to stuff like that?"

John then replied, "Yeah, though I get really sore after a beating like that." He rubbed his shoulder and popped his neck.

"You must work out a lot to be used to something like that dropkick." Donald said.

"Yeah, I do work out. I practice with swords and stuff like that."

"Then you must use heavy swords like katanas or broadswords." I said, "No offense but, I don't see someone like you using a rapier or long sword."

John smiled and said, "We got us a sword expert do we? And yes, I'll have you know that katanas and broadswords are my specialty. Although I'm not to bad with a regular sword either."

"Can you teach me?" Donald asked. I knew the reason he wanted to learn from him. Donald never really got to do anything besides read books and get on the computer. Then, his dad got him a game where the main character got to fight monsters and soldiers with a huge sword. So, it was only natural that he would want to learn something like that.

"Sure can do little buddy." He gave Donald a friendly punch. Although it was meant to be light, Donald held the place he got punched and dropped. "Sorry, my bad." John apologized.

I then went over to talk to Virgil. Unfortunately, he had passed out a while back without anyone noticing. When I woke him up, he said that he wasn't really good with being out in the sun. I thought that was a little weird because he seemed to like reading, but then I remembered that it was Virgil. He seemed a little sad about saying that. I then said,

"Maybe you should borrow this big hat of mine." It looked like he was smiling but, again, I couldn't be sure. He stood and staggered to get inside. I helped him a few times, but we didn't talk until we were inside. That's when I asked,

"Were you named Virgil for any particular reason?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Well, I was named after a guy from a story called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which is where the pronunciation came from. The spelling came from Bram Stoker, an author of a famous vampire book."

"I see. Well, I think I was named because of the dog that saved my life."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was little, my parents died in a fire before they had named me. The dog, that my hometown had named Vigor, saved me from that fire. No one knew why he saved me but he did. So I was named Virgil."

"How do you get Virgil from Vigor besides the 'V-I' part?"

"I guess they just got it from that part of the name."

"I guess." I leaned against the wall, "This rocking is making me sick."

Virgil then said, "Why don't you come to my study? I've got some interesting books that you could read. I mean, if you're in to reading."

I looked at him and said, "That would be awesome. I love reading."

"Well you can't tell anyone about where it is. Okay? It's my secret hiding place. I go there when I don't want to be bothered."

"I promise I won't tell. Even under hypnosis, torture, and death."

He then lead me through a series of halls that I didn't recognize.

After about an hour of walking, we finally came to the storage deck. We walked in and it was nearly pitch black inside. Virgil grabbed a lantern, lit it, and pulled me through the area. He constantly reminded me to watch my step around some of the more fragile cargo.

"What are in these boxes?" I asked.

"All sorts of things." He answered. "Things from swords to my favorite, books."

"Are you all traders or something?"

"Yes actually. I run selling and buying the books at the ports. On my off days, I go through the newly bought books to take interesting ones as payment."

"You must really like books."

"I love them. Ah, here we are." He led me to a big box that said in big letters: DO NOT TOUCH: CONTENTS MAY PROVE TO BE LETHAL!

"What's in there?" I ask.

"Oh, just a bunch of rocks." He said, "I tell people it's filled with unstable bombs to keep them away. Now, help me move this."

Moving the box was relatively simple and easier than expected. Underneath it was a trapdoor, opening it was a pain though. The reason was because we were trying to be as silent as possible and the hinges were really noisy. After that, we descended into an even darker space. Virgil found a switch and flipped it. Then, as three candles lit up in three corners of the room, Virgil hung his in the last corner.

"It's great to be back." He said. He then took off his scarf, cloak, and cloth to reveal an average figure for a teenage guy. Till he smiled, thus showing a row of really sharp teeth. I stood there silent for a while.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "Does my appearance frighten you? Or is it my voice? Or maybe how I lit the room with the flip of a switch?" I now noticed that he had a cold scratchy voice that could seemingly scare anything.

I then explained, "I admit, you did scare me with the teeth, but I knew a guy with nails like claws so I don't really mind. Your voice is surprising, but I guess it's from not talking much and being in this room a lot. As for the candles, I guess the switch lights three matches which also came down and lit the candles."

"Good guesses, but you're a little off regarding the candles." He said. He then put the lantern out and went over to a desk on the opposite end of the room. I followed and examined the room more. It was a somewhat large room with shelves overflowing with strange books. Each one dealing with black magic and other stuff like alchemy, both of which were my favorite subjects.

"Go ahead and grab a book." He said. I then looked and found a beginner's black magic book and started reading.

Virgil and I read until the candles almost burned out.

"Everyone's probably looking for us." He said.

"Yeah." I agreed and closed the book, "We should probably get going."

"Yes, but first..." He went to a chest, that sat next to his desk, and produced three batteries, three candles, and an oil can. He then went around the room placing each item in the correct spot and replaced the lantern's fuel. Afterwards, we ventured back to the deck to get some fresh air.

It was pretty late when we got on to the deck and we saw Donald training with John by the mast. They were using wooden swords but they had weights on their arms to simulate the weight of a real sword. I half expected Donald to be sparing with John, but they just stood there wielding their fake swords.

"What's going on?" I asked them.

"I'm trying to keep my fighting stance." Donald said. As I looked closer, I saw that Donald was struggling to try and keep his arms up.

"These things weigh a ton." He complained.

"They can't be as bad as mine." Alishia said on the opposite side of the mast. She also wore weights and was doing a similar exercise, only she had no sword.

"Where have you two been?" Jordan came up and asked us.

Virgil and I looked at each other and said in unison, "Reading."

"What were you reading? Idiots guide to black magic or something?"

"Sort of like that." I said, "Anyways, I think we should head back to our cabins. It's getting pretty late."

Immediately, Donald and Alishia dropped their arms and said together, "Thank god." I took it that they were standing there all day.

"Before that," John said, "let's all go get something to eat. You all must be starving." We had to admit that we were, so we all went to go eat, except for Virgil that is. He said that he wasn't very hungry. I wondered if that were really true.

After eating a full meal of dinner, Donald, Jordan, Alishia, and I walked to our cabins. We talked about what we did all day. Donald and Alishia both said all they did is what I saw, just stand there. Jordan said that Scarlet taught her about a bit of medicine then started to ramble on about when she first learned medicine. So, she read the first book she found which, ironically, dealt with white magic.

After a while, we finally got to the girls' cabin and we split up. Donald and I walked on for a while when we ran into Virgil again.

"Hey dude." I said, "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm just heading into my cabin." He replied. Donald had kept walking because he wasn't really excited to talk to Virgil.

"Is this it?" I asked, gesturing towards a door with the initials: V.V.

"Yes. What tipped it off? The two 'V's or the fact my hand is on it?"

"I was just making sure. I wouldn't want to knock on the wrong door if I was looking for you."

"Okay. Well, you better get to your cabin before it gets to dark for you to see."

"Thanks for the advice. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Let's hope so." So, on that final note, I left to my cabin. Unknowing that my life was going to have a drastic change before this trip was over.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: This is just more setting up really, but ther IS something important in here. (well sort of)**

[Chapter 3]

[Learning to Fight]

The next day, Donald, Jordan, Alishia, and I went to continue where we left off the day before. I went to read the book I started, Donald went to lift weights so he could hold the sword easier, Alishia went to practice with Anna, and Jordan went to try and find Scarlet. After a while, I finally finished the book and Virgil gave me a metal staff. "What's this for?" I asked.

"So you don't trip on your robes at a critical moment. I noticed you were having trouble walking in those." He replied, "Not to mention it goes with your outfit." It was true on both parts. I did have a little trouble when it came to walking in the robes and it didn't look out of place with my robes. Then again, I didn't think anything could look out of place with them. So I thanked him and went on my way.

Later, I finally reached the deck and saw Donald practicing with his wooden sword on John, and Alishia trying to hit Anna. John and Anna both had the upper hand and were dodging and parrying the blows. All of a sudden, John found an opening and knocked Donald down with the hilt of his fake sword. Then, Anna blocked Alishia's punch with her foot and kicked her down. "You're getting better." John told Donald as he got up.

I expected a similar response from Anna, but, instead, she said, "You need more practice. Try and hit that boy over there." She pointed at me. Alishia tried to refuse but Anna cut her off and yelled, "Just do it!" Immediately, Alishia nodded and came rushing towards me. I knew I was doomed because I could never really run fast, but I did anyways. Alishia was gaining on me, and fast. I looked around for a way to get out of this mess and remembered the book I read. In it, it said, "Magic is absorbed from the world around you to increase, create, or control energy." I knew it was impossible but I thought, "Meh, it's worth a shot." I then concentrated and nothing happened. Then I remembered my staff, So I tried defending with that. I held it up and blocked perfectly. She tried punching again and I twisted the staff to defend that blow too. Everything seemed to slow down and I saw where she would punch to next. I defended for a while until she finally made contact and I was knocked down. Her punch really hurt and it knocked the breath out of me.

I staggered over to the rail and thought about how I just did all that. I had never been able to block a punch from anyone and yet I was able to stand my ground against someone who could now punch extremely hard. My arms were sore and my chest hurt but I still felt fine even. I thought maybe I should learn how to do that more when Virgil came out. "I saw everything." He said through his scarf, "You were really good. Have you ever done that before?"

"No." I said, "I've never done anything like that. I usually avoid violence whenever I can so I've never learned how to do that either."

"I could teach you." He said, "It shouldn't be that hard to teach someone something."

Wow, I thought. He's never taught anyone anything in his entire life. But I agreed to let him teach me. For the rest of the day, Virgil attacked me, with a wooden pole he found, and I defended. I was learning really quick, I learned some basic moves and I learned how to block some assaults while I still was terrible defending against stabs and sweeps. We stopped to take a break a lot because the sun was messing with Virgil's health, both physical and mental. He sometimes passed out and started saying the most insane stuff like: "That's my doorknob." or "I feel like a little frog." I knew he was weird but I then understood why people avoided him. Regardless, a little drink or splash of cold water snapped him back to sanity.

Donald seemed to be progressing quickly as well. I saw him make contact with John a few times, causing him to defend. Alishia was also making progress. She was getting better at dodging and almost connected a blow against Anna. In the middle of the day, an annoyingly loud laugh rose above the roar of the waves. A very large, heavy set, man, with incredabbly tan skin, was watching us. He was the biggest person I had ever seen. He was bald but had a large beard that covered his entire lowwer jaw. He laughed for a while until he finally shut up and actually said something. "Ya'll are pathetic!" I said in an equally annoying voice, "I could pound all three o' ya in a couple o' seconds."

He talked in a clearly fake country accent, so I asked, "Why are you talking like that?"

"Don' all Kentuckians talk like this?" He answered in his dumb accent again.

"No you idiot!" I yelled, "So why don't you shut up and go back to whatever you were doing?" I was annoyed. I didn't exactly know why. All I knew, at that moment, was that this guy was a serious pain in the neck. I didn't like him and, by what I could see, no one else did either. He then strode across the deck like he owned the ship and stopped next to Alishia and Anna.

"Well, well." he began in a gritty voice, "Look who decided to come out of shell and come into the sunlight." At first I thought he was talking about Virgil and was about to ask if he needed glasses as much as Scarlet did.

My question was cut short with John yelled at the man, "Stop harrasing Anna, Stereo!" John lifted his wooden sword. I thought to myself, That sounds like the name for a stereotypical gang member. Then I thought about the word stereotype, him doing the fake accent and the loud voice, then thought, "Oh, I get it now."

"I will," Stereo began, "but only if you can take me down." He spread out his arms as he taunted us to hit him. I knew, if any of us fought him, that he actually could pound us quickly. Regardless, I got so ticked off by this guy that I actually picked up a discarded wooden plank and threw it at the giant man. I don't know why, I was just ticked off to the point where I felt reckless. The man then turned a deep red and turned torwards me.

"YOU LITTLE PUNK!!!" He yelled, came up to my face, and said, "You're dead meat."

Then I ran. I thought he would be slow because he was so huge, but I was wrong. He was able to pass me in a few seconds and smashed his arm in my face. I blacked out.

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I woke up a few hours later in a hospital bed and I had a huge headache. "Since when does this place have a doctor's office?", I thought. I looked at the two beds next to mine, saw Donald in one, and Alishia in the other. "What happened to you two?" I asked.

"I tried to take down Stereo with my wooden sword," Donald said, "but it broke on contact with his skin and he knocked me across the deck with his arm." He was laying very still and sounded like he was in pain.

"Then I tried to fight and he nearly ripped my arm off." said Alishia. She was wearing a cast on her arm but it didn't seem broken. She then continued, "Then Captain came out and brought about twenty men to stop him." She said rubbing her casted arm.

I tried to stand but my headache said otherwise. "I've never felt a hangover," I began, "but it can't be as bad as this." I attempted a laugh but my head was pounding, so I stopped.

Then Scarlet and Jordan came in. "You'll be fine in a few hours, deary." The old woman said. Then she started to ramble on about how a guy she knew always got in similar situations so Jordan told us what injuries we had. "Alishia's arm was almost broken but she was lucky that the captain stopped Stereo when he did." She looked at Alishia, "You should be fine in a little, although, your arm will be stiff for a while." Alishia nodded to show she understood. "Donald has a bunch of sprained muscles but should be fine by tomorrow, thanks to Scarlet." Donald looked like he wanted to say something but he was in too much pain to do anything. In fact, it hurt just to look at him. "Bram had a broken nose that was mended quickly and he has two black eyes."

"Like anyone will notice them." I said, attempting another laugh. My eyes were turning black already from how late I stay up at night and from how much I read. I saw myself in a mirror and said, "They seem like an improvement to me. Anyways, I can't wait to pay back that jerk for what he did." I grinned even though it hurt immensely.

"How will you?" Donald asked painfully, "You're the least bit athletic, you got your butt kicked in five seconds, an- you have a plan, don't you?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." I then told them my plan and they just stared at me.

"It'll never work." Alishia stated, "He's too big and we're not good enough. Plus, we're in no condition to fight."

"Then we'll have to improve in abilities and health now, won't we?" I asked.

"How can you pull it off without anyone noticing?" Donald asked, "I mean, you kind of stand out."

"I know, but I have a little help." I grabbed my staff and put it beside Donald. "You'll need that more than me right now."

"This is suicide." He said, "This plan will never work."

"It could," Scarlet joined the conversation, "and I know some people who could also help." She moved over to the door to open it. When she did, three people fell through. They were John, Virgil, and Anna. Apparently, they had been listening in on the conversation. "What do you say, dearies?" Scarlet asked, "Do you feel like taking down a tyrant?"

"Any plan to take down that jerk is fine with me." John said excitedly.

"You have the approval and help from me and big brother." Anna stated.

"It's about time we shut that moron up!" Virgil exclaimed, "I can't sleep or read in my room because of his laughing! I figure a good beating will give him something to laugh about!"

Nobody really paid attention to the fact he had gone insane. Instead, we all asked at the exact same time, "You actually sleep?" Even Scarlet had asked.

"Of course I sleep. What do you think I am? A vampire?" The response was filled with a mixture of whistling, coughs, and confessions. "I can't believe you people."

"Anyways, down to business." I said. I gave everyone a job for preparations and those of us who would fight would look over the plans. We would carry out the plan the next day.

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The next day was cloudy and the ocean grew violent. We had challenged Stereo to a rematch. What a day, I thought, I hope we can pull this off. Stereo came out on deck with his annoying smirk as I thought this. "Where's the runt?" he asked, "Did I scare him off?"

"Actually, you hurt him so bad that he's taking longer than expected to recover." I said, "It's just me and Alishia, but he could join at anytime. If he feels better."

"Too bad." he replied, "This will be over before then and I was hoping to do some real damage this time." He cracked his knuckles. Everyone came on deck to watch. Everyone was dressed the same as always except for the captain, who was dressed in black like he was going to a funeral. Jerk.

"Let's do this!" Stereo yelled, "I want to mess up your face a little more."

I was using another discarded plank as a weapon. I aimed and hope I didn't miss my target. I threw the plank and it hit Stereo straight between the eyes. "Bulls eye!" I yelled.

"This isn't a game of darts boy!" He stepped forward and the boards of the deck broke beneath his feet. "What the-?" Alishia then went behind him and got him in a headlock. "Get off me, you little brat!" He flailed as much as possible to get her off. I took this distraction and charged straight into him. I didn't expect much of a reaction, but I managed to get his attention. Stereo was now dealing with both of us, which is just what we wanted. Stereo then swung his arm and knocked me back against the mast and threw Alishia off of his back. He then freed his foot, walked towards me, and said, "You'll do as substitute for that runt friend of yours."

"He may be small but he has a high IQ, unlike you." I mocked him.

"Who cares? My muscles can solve any problem I have." he replied.

"Can they solve a headache?" I asked.

"What does that have to do with any-" I interrupted him and pointed up. He looked up in time to see Donald jumping down from the crow's nest, ready swing down a giant hammer yelling, "Got ya!". The next few moments happened in almost an instant. Donald swung down the hammer and put Stereo into a daze. Donald then handed my staff to me, which I used to trip the giant man. Alishia then slammed down on the man with her elbow and knocked him out.

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A while later, Stereo woke up. The first thing he asked was, "What happened?"

We responded, "We kicked your butt jerk!!!"

"Oh yeah." he began. A few seconds past, then he jumped up and yelled, "You little punks, I'll kill you for that!!!"

Then a hand appeared on his shoulder and the man said, "It's over Scott." The hand belonged to the captain. It then occurred to me that I never heard his real name.

"It's Stereo! Not Scott! And I'm not going to listen to you!"

"Is that so?" Captain looked at him fiercely, "Then you're fired. You may depart immediately."

"What?" Stereo, or rather Scott, was shocked, "But sir I-"

"Enough, Scott. I said you're fired. Leave now." Captain was obviously getting annoyed.

"Never." The giant man growled, "You can't stop me this time old man."

The captain then grabbed Scott by the arm and said, "Never call me old man." Captain then lifted the man off the ground and threw him overboard. "Someone throw him a life boat or something, just don't bring him back on deck."

"Don't you think that's a little harsh?" I asked. "I mean, throwing him overboard."

"Don't worry," he said cleaning one of his ears, "That man can swim all the way back to California, in these conditions I might add, if he wanted to. I'm just being nice and giving him a boat to rest in for a while." I laughed. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"It just seems rare for you to be nice to someone other than your sister." I answered.

"Well don't get used to it." He said menacingly, "You may find yourself overboard one day and I will definitely not help you." He then left and we just stood there on the deck in silence.

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We were the talk of the ship for the rest of the day. Everyone on the ship came and asked us how, exactly, we beat Stereo. I would answer but either John, Virgil, Anna, or Scarlet, and sometimes Captain, would interrupt us and say that we would explain everything later at a party for our victory. The ship seemed more lively than usual too. More crew members were walking around than usual. I guessed that they were too scared to come out with Stereo around. After the fight, Donald had gone back to his hospital bed from all the energy the day took out of him. I was on my way to get him when I saw John, Anna, Scarlet, Virgil, Alishia, and Jordan at the door of the Doctor's office.

"Look who made it." John said, "We thought we would have to leave without you."

"How's Donald?" I asked.

"I've never felt better." He said from his bed.

"What do you say we get going then?" John said.

"Alright, let's go." I replied and we all left.

Later at the party, the captain dragged all me, Donald, and Alishia on to a stand that was a substitute for a stage. He then made us, or me I should say, explain the details of our victory. "So how did you all do it?" Captain asked me.

"Well we had a little help." I began, "First, I asked Virgil to go down to the cargo deck and find a suitable hammer for Donald to use. Then I asked Anna to find some heavier weights for Alishia to use so she could knock out Stereo. Donald's recovery, in fact, was proceeding slowly so I asked Scarlet and Jordan to make some medicine that would relax Donald's muscles so he wouldn't be in so much pain while swinging his hammer. Finally, I asked John to help Donald up to the crow's nest so he wouldn't be too tired when he was cued to jump."

"What about the deck breaking?" Someone asked.

"It was an accident that actually delayed the plan." I admitted, "So we attacked him a little early to get him unstuck."

"Amazing." Captain said, "So you all got lucky in the end."

"Lucky how exactly?" Donald asked.

"One, Scott was a moron from the beginning, and, two, everyone hated that jerk. If it hadn't been for those two facts, you would have lost."

"So?" I asked, "The way I see it, every accomplishment someone makes is out of luck."

"I suppose so." Captain agreed, "Well I'm sure we all had fun, but it's time for, some of us to go to bed." He faked yawn, and we all stared at him. When he noticed everyone, he yawned louder and everyone ran to their cabins. "That goes for you all too." He pointed at us. We left, without a word, to our cabins.

"That was awesome!!!" I exclaimed as we were walking, "I wish we could something like that again."

"I don't." Donald said, "Especially after that first round with that guy." He rubbed his shoulder.

"I hope I never have to fight." Jordan said.

"It isn't so bad." Alishia told her, "In the end, he was easier to beat than Bram."

"Hey!" I yelled, "You got lucky that one time and I still blocked you most of the time."

"Sure she did." Donald said, "That's why you fell down after getting hit once."

"What are you talking about?" Jordan asked.

"Oh, just Bram getting his butt kicked by Alishia." Donald answered.

She laughed and then she went into her cabin with Alishia. Donald and I then walked to our cabin in silence for a while. Then I finally asked, "So how was it?"

"How was what?" He asked back.

"Jumping from the crow's nest." I answered, "You must have felt like you were flyi- huh?" He fell down when I answered him and I hadn't noticed.

"Don't ever mention that again. It was the scariest thing I have ever done."

"Even scarier than asking your parents to come on this trip?" I laughed

"One hundred fold." He answered seriously. "Especially when that guy looked at me."

"What was his expression like?" I asked.

"Like someone who would want to kill." That answer scared me but I knew we wouldn't see him ever again and assured Donald of this fact. At this point, everything was about to go wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: After this, you won't have to deal with the our world in the story for a long time.**

[Chapter 4]

[The Storm]

Sleeping that night was easier said than done. The waves were restless all night and the rocking was making me sick. Donald slept like a log through the rocking but I wasn't as fortunate. I took every bit of my will power to not get up and try to go outside. Not even the rain pouring down outside could help me sleep. Rain usually put me to sleep but I guess it was different when I was on a boat. Finally, I caved and decided to walk around a bit and try to get some fresh air. I wasn't going to go outside, just go to the door of the deck and open it a little. I walked a little and listened to the sweet rhythm of the downpour outside. I was already feeling better, but I wasn't tired. I continued to walk around the ship. It seemed a lot different at night. The familiar corridors were now strange and seemed new to me. It didn't take long for me to get hopelessly lost. I was lost for what was only about a half-hour but it felt like an eternity. I thought I would stay lost but I managed to get to the deck and breath in some fresh air.

The rain had died down a bit so I thought I would take a stroll out on the deck. The night was calmer than it had been before. The waves were not as violent and the rocking died down. I was about to go back to my cabin when I saw something crawling up the side of the ship. I thought it was a rat or insect so I went to try and get rid of it. When I got closer, I saw that it was actually a scorpion, and a big one with legs and arms that were longer than they should have been. It scared me half to death and then Captain came out on deck, which scared me even more. Even the scorpion seemed scared and it crawled on to my arm. I was about to scream until the captain said, "Don't worry, little Griff won't hurt you." He petted the arachnid.

"You call this thing little?" I responded.

"Compared to his mommy he's the size of a baby." The captain talked like a kid.

"I'd hate to see that." I said and Griff looked at me and I added, "No offense." He turned away.

"Well I'll leave you two then." The man said.

"You're leaving me alone with him?" Griff seemed to ask the same thing.

"Yep, you two have fun." He the left us on the deck.

"Now what do we do?" I looked at Griff, "Great. Just great. I'm talking to a scorpion." I heard a scratching sound. I looked at Griff and saw him making movements that seemed like he was writing. I then said, "Wait here a second." I then went inside. I then found an old pencil and a piece of paper in a small work office. I hoped nobody minded I was borrowing them. I then ran out side to find it raining again. "Come inside." I said to Griff and he came in. I then laid the pencil and paper in front of him and he began to write. I was amazed by the fact it could actually communicate in some way. I the read what he was writing and it said: There's going to be a storm tomorrow. I have told the captain this and he will order all men to prepare in the morning. I am writing this to tell you to stay in your cabin and to pass on the message to your friends. From, Griff.

"I'm right here," I told him, "You don't have to sign it." He then wrote: Force of habit.

"I really can't believe this vacation." He looked at me curiously, "I mean, I've read about black magic, been smashed in the face, devised a plan to take down a giant man, and now I'm talking to a scorpion like I would to a person. This is a lot more than I bargained for." Griff nodded and wrote: Just wait.

I was going to ask what that meant but he scurried off into the darkness and I was left alone. I had grown tired, but hadn't realized it, so I returned the pencil and threw the paper in a small trash bin full of wadded up paper. I then returned to my cabin to be ready for the next day. Donald was still asleep which was good. That meant I wouldn't have to explain anything. I laid down on my bed and fell asleep.

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I woke to the sound of thunder and, by the looks of it, so did Donald. We heard rain pouring down viciously and the rocking of the ship was greater than ever. It took us a while before we could stand up and Donald tried going out. "Don't." I stopped him, "We shouldn't leave, it's too dangerous to go anywhere."

"But what about Jordan and Alishia? I need to know if their okay." he replied.

"Alishia should be fine and Jordan should be too, if they stay together."

"Sorry dude, but I have to make sure." He ran out.

I sighed, "What a moron. Then again, what does that make me?" I managed a smile, grabbed my staff, and ran after him.

First we checked the girls' cabin but it was empty. We then tried the doctor's office to see if they had gotten sick. Unfortunately, that was a failure as well. We checked everywhere we could think of until we finally reached the deck. I was hesitant but, I opened the door. Outside was a dark waterfall of rain and it was difficult to see anything. We traversed the deck to try and find the girls when we saw them at the end of the deck.

"Are you okay?" I asked over the rain.

"Yeah." Jordan replied, "We were out here earlier when the storm was still far away."

"The only problem," Alishia began, "is that it was really quick in getting here."

"We need to go back inside." I told them, "This storm is too bad to be out in the open for."

"No duh." Donald replied while lightning struck so I ignored him.

"Let's go." I said and worked our way across the deck to the door.

After a few steps, the captain opened his door and yelled, "Get inside you idiots." He then came over and grabbed us. He started to pull us towards his cabin and we almost reached it when the door slammed shut by the wind. Captain tried to open it but it was jammed. He said something but I couldn't hear it over the rain. He then started pushing us to the other side. We reached the mast when a huge wave hit the side of the ship and tripped everyone but the captain. He then dragged us to our feet and started pushing again. Another wave hit the ship and we all slipped and were sent to the edge of the deck. "This is getting us nowhere." Captain said, "We'll go overboard at this rate."

He shouldn't have said that. As soon as he had, another wave hit the boat and Donald was thrown off the side of the deck. Not thinking, I jumped after him. Another wave had hit the boat as I jumped and everyone else was thrown off as well.

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We were out at sea for about a day. Some pieces of the ship had been torn off so we used them to stay afloat. The storm had died away and we were separated from the captain, even though he had caught on to the same piece of driftwood as us. "Sorry about this guys." I apologized, "It's my fault we're in this mess, and don't say otherwise."

"Well it doesn't matter now." Donald told me, "We're here and we need to get to a safe place. So let's just look for land or something."

"Okay." I agreed.

"I just have one question before we do that." Alishia said, "What's with that thing?" She pointed to my hat, I looked at it, and saw Griff. Apparently he had fallen off the boat as well and, being an arachnid, looked completely wiped out. I then explained about Griff, how I met him, and the fact he's able to communicate with us.

"That's... weird." Donald said. Griff looked offended and Donald apologized. He then had the, wait-I'm-talking-to-a-scorpion reaction I had. I'm sure Jordan would have said something but she had fallen asleep a while ago. The only thing that was keeping her from falling was Donald, who was holding her on to the driftwood.

We drifted for a few hours or so until Griff spotted something over the horizon. We looked to find a large island on the edge of our sight. By Griff's attitude, I could have sworn he wanted to yell: Land Ho! So we drifted as best as we could towards the land mass. Even Jordan had helped, when she woke up.

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At sunset, we finally reached a port and were greeted by a couple of fishing teens who had caught onto our legs a few times with the hooks on their poles. The helped us out of the water and we thanked them over a million times. A boy, who seemed to be the oldest came up to us and asked, "Who are you people." The boy was dressed in some clothes that made him look like a local town thief. We introduced ourselves to the boy and he asked where we came from, why we were drifting, and if we were okay. I explained that we were alright, that we came from Kentucky, and why we were out at sea.

"Why do you have a pet scorpion?" a little kid asked.

"I'm not a pet you stupid idiot!!!" We heard someone say in a scratchy voice.

"What the heck? You can talk Griff?" I exclaimed.

"It seems so but I don't know why I can now." The scorpion said.

"What's Kentucky?" another kid asked and broke the conversation..

"I dunno." The oldest kid said. "I guess it's a far off city or something, right?" He smiled to reveal he was missing a few teeth.

"Or something." Donald answered, "Pretty boring place though. Nothing to do and nothing interesting to talk about."

"Must be nice then." A man came over to us. He was carrying a bag with him that rattled whenever it shook and he held a harpoon. "You four look tired." He stated. "Why don't you stay at the inn tonight, I'll pay for it this one time."

"That would be nice sir." Donald thanked the man.

"So are you all missing anything important or do you have everything?" The teenager asked.

I thought, I was clutching my staff in my hand so I didn't worry about that. Then I remembered and shouted, "Our necklaces!" We all checked for them. Mine was safe around my neck, as was Jordan's. Donald and Alishia pulled theirs out of their pockets.

"What the-?" The man began as he saw the jewels. He then asked "You're the warriors of light!?"

"The... what?" we all asked in unison.

"A prophecy states that: When the world is in darkness, Four Warriors of light shall come."

"And you think that's us?" Donald asked

"Pretty much." The man said, "Anyways. Here." He handed Alishia a staff, similar to mine, and he gave me and Donald knives. "Sorry, that's all I got but you'll need some sort of weapon." So I handed Jordan my staff. She tried to object but I insisted she keep it. We then marched on to a town to the north, called Cornelia. It was like nothing we had expected.


	5. Chapter 5

[Chapter 5]

[The Cliché Story]

On our way to Cornelia, a strange creature attacked us. It looked like an extremely ugly, short, person. It had claws and drooled when it saw us. It then spoke in a cloggy voice, "Yummy meal for me. Must eat big peoples for dinner and save little peoples for later." It came running at us incredibly fast and cut Donald but the man then stuck his harpoon through the thing's chest before it could do anything else. "I hate goblin's." He said while cleaning off his weapon. "They're so annoying, messy, and cheap."

"Cheap?" I asked. Completely losing my wits.

"Yeah. Around here, you can get money if you kill monsters."

"Cool." Donald smiled. I sighed and tried to slow my heavily beating heart. _Everyone's insane._

"The little freaks also sometimes carry valuable treasure with them, which is really helpful." He checked the monster and pulled a small bottle off of a string. "Looks like this one had a potion." He said. The bottle contained a transparent green liquid. He then poured the contents onto Donald's cut and it healed immediately. We were all amazed by it. He told us to hurry up and led us to a small town surrounded by a wall. People were standing guard at the gate but they let us through. The sun had set and we couldn't see much in the night because the moon was hidden behind clouds. The man lead us to a building that had a sign that read: INN. We were surprised that the building had only five residents, a lady at the front desk and four kids that were sleeping in the room to the right. The lady was an ordinary person who looked like she hadn't slept very well for a while. "Welcome to the Inn." she greeted us, "How many will be staying tonight?"

"These four kids over here will be staying." The man said.

"We charge 30 gil per night. Are you sure you would like to stay?" She asked. I thought to myself, _That doesn't sound right at all_. The man agreed and left us in the building. The lady then directed us to our rooms. We each had a separate room and a change in clothes was provided for us. I changed and slept well that night. Although, I was worried about everyone aboard the ship and wondered what had happened to the captain. Griff then came up to me and answered my thoughts, "Don't worry. I'm sure everyone is fine. Captain isn't one to give up. I'm sure he just went on his own because he doesn't like helping people. He also doesn't like people helping him, unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Thanks dude." I said.

"No problem, that's why I'm here."

"Okay.... and why exactly are you here?"

"To tell you these sort of things."

"I see. Wait. I just remembered, the last thing you said to me last night was 'Just wait.' Did you know this was going to happen?"

"Nope, I meant 'Just wait' as in: Just wait, cause the storm is going to be worse than you think."

"You could have said that earlier." I ended the conversation and I went back to bed.

* * *

The next day, we decided to explore the town. But, when we stepped, we saw a huge castle to the north of town. "How long has that been there?" I wondered out loud.

"It's always been there, silly." A girl came up to us, "I haven't seen you around here, are you new in Cornelia?" The girl wore a feathered headband, a small top, and a long skirt. She had brown hair, tan skin, and she held a long piece of cloth in her hands.

"Lost is more like it." Donald said with a sigh.

The girl looked at him, "How can you be lost? Cornelia isn't big at all."

"That's the thing." Jordan said, "We don't know where Cornelia is."

"It's here, silly. You're in Cornelia."

"She means related to our home." I told her. More than a little annoyed.

"Can't be that far." She replied and started to walk away, "You were only sailing for a few days before the storm, right?"

"Yea- Wait! how did you know that?" Donald asked, but it was to late and she had walked off.

"That was weird." I said everyone's thoughts aloud and they nodded. We decided to look around town. It only had six buildings, and most of them were shops. There was a weapon shop which we looked at first. We found it had knives, nunchaku, staffs, hammers, and rapiers. "Hmmm..." The shop owner looked at us. "You runts don't got any money on ya', do ya?"

"Unfortunately." Donald shrugged.

The man looked around and handed us a bag with gold coins. "Take these," he said, "It's called gil. That's the currency around here. But that's all I got."

"Thanks sir." I said. I pondered in my head about where the heck we were.

The man cleared his throat and said, "Welcome. What would you like to buy? Nope. Don't tell me. I know exactly what to do." He looked at us, pulled out some nanchaku and gave them to Alishia. He also gave a hammer to Jordan and a rapier to Donald. Jordan then gave me my staff back. "That'll be 24 gil." He held out his hand and I paid him, using the numbers on the coins as reference to their value.

We then went next door and bought some armor. We knew we would have to fight some monsters so we wanted to be safe.

Then we found some magic shops. I went into the black magic shop with Alishia while Jordan and Donald went into the white magic shop. We divided the money in half so no one argued. I bought a few charms that had a fire symbol, lightning symbol, and another with a moon on it. Jordan had gotten two with a sun and shield on them and a third that was a dull green. These would make great souvenirs.

There was a church in town but praying wasn't our thing so we avoided it. Near that was an item shop which we used to buy a few potions. Then we tried to leave town, but a guard stopped us and said, "The king is searching for the prophesized Warriors of Light." He then saw our necklaces,"Th-those crystals! You must see the king at once." Then he dragged all four of us to the castle.

* * *

"Welcome, travelers." The king greeted us. We kneeled before him, as we were told so earlier. "I am told you carry crystals." he continued, "Is this true?" We showed him our necklaces. "It's just as Lukahn's prophecy foretold." He recited the now familiar phrase.

"Your Majesty," the man by his side began, "we cannot be certain that these are the warriors foretold by the prophecy." _Hooray_, I thought, _someone who makes sense around here_.

"Yet they stand before us with the crystals." The king replied, "I cannot dismiss this as mere coincidence. Crystal bearers, there is a task I would ask of you. Will you not rescue my daughter, Sarah?"

The man explained that a knight, by the name of Garland, had abducted the princess and he asked us to save her in the name of the king. He also told us that Garland was hiding at a place called Chaos Shrine to the north. They had attempted to save her but Garland was apparently the best swordsman in the kingdom.

"So you want us, four teenagers you just met, to go up against the best swordsman you know, risk our lives against him and hordes of monsters, and possibly die all because of a prophecy that probably has nothing to do with us?"

The king nodded and we all stood there in silence. _Wow,_ I thought, _this kingdom is doomed._ He then said, "I had heard you wish to travel to the continent to the north but the bridge leading there was lost long ago and passage there is impossible. If you rescue Sarah, I will have the bridge rebuilt as a sign of my gratitude. Go now Warriors of Light, and do not fail me!" Then, on that note, we left.

"Uhhh..." I began as we were walking, "He does know that we want to go to the continent of North America and not just to the north. Right?" There was silence.

"I say we just look for a way home as soon as possible." Donald said.

"Well we're apparently stuck on this continent, Donald." I told him.

"I think we should help." Jordan suggested.

"That's the plan." I told her, "Besides, our best shot at getting home may be north." So, we left for Chaos Shrine.

Not so long after we left, two wolves had attacked us. Donald and I fought one while Jordan and Alishia fought the other. It was an easy fight so we didn't worry too much and marched onward. We were attacked a few more times but we were all fine. "Whew, this is annoying." said Jordan.

"These monsters come out of nowhere." Donald said. "There's no way we can save a princess."

"This is like something out of a fantasy novel." Alishia added on.

At this point I put two and two together. "What the hell!?" I exclaim.

"What is it?" Donald asks drawing his sword.

"Why didn't I realize this? Cornelia, gil, Garland, monsters, and Princess Sarah? We're in Final Fantasy one!"

They stare at me dumbly. After a moment they burst into laughter. "Yeah right!" Jordan exclaims. "Final Fantasy one, good joke dude." _Wow_, I thought, _Great friends._

* * *

At the end of the first day, we decided to campout in a near by cave. There, we met a short man, who was apparently a dwarf. He told us, "This is the Earthgift Shrine. Long ago ye could enter, but the way's been shut syne the land began tae decay."

"What?" Donald asked.

"He said that we can't enter because of the land decaying." I answered.

"What the heck is land-" he didn't need to be answered. A foul stench came over us and it became difficult to breath. The smell seemed to come from a statue of a cloaked monster. We decided to camp out at the beginning of the cave.

* * *

The next day, we hiked through a small marshland and a forest. Then, we finally reached Chaos Shrine. "That was easy." Jordan said.

"Yeah." Donald agreed. "But it's going to be tougher inside."

"And then we have to fight Garland." Alishia said.

"Let's just get this over with." I told them and stomped inside.

_Creepy place_, was the first thing I thought. I smiled. I always loved places like this. We walked into the room ahead of us and saw a tall man. We hid and watched him. "The king will have no choice but to exchange the kingdom for his daughter's life." The man said. The voice was familiar, but I couldn't remember why. "Cornelia will be mine!" Then Donald sneezed and the man faced us. "Who's there!?" he asked as he turned to find us. "Humph. The king's lapdogs. Do you have any idea who you're messing with?" I could barely see his face through his mask, but I figured out who he was. "You really think you have what it takes to cross swords with ME?" he broke my thoughts, "Very well... I, Garland, will knock you all down!!" He attacked us.

I wasn't the best fighter so I didn't think I could do much. We all attacked him and didn't do diddly. He then attacked me and I barely dodged. I tripped and dropped my lightning charm. I grabbed it and it started to glow. I was surprised, but then I had an idea and held the stone above my head. Everyone was confused by what I was doing but they attacked anyways. Then a bolt of lightning struck Garland. The man was mad so he slashed with his sword and put a huge gash in my arm. Donald attacked and knocked the man out.

We then saw a girl with green hair, wearing a white dress, sleeping. She woke up and said," You... you've come to rescue me? I don't know how I could ever thank you... I am Sarah, princess of Cornelia. That's the first time anyone's defeated Garland. You must allow me to show my gratitude. Please, accompany me to Castle Cornelia."

"No problem there." Donald said. "I'm just glad we can get out of here." Everyone walked to the door, but I stayed put. I was watching Garland, who was knocked out. "You coming, Bram?" Donald asked.

"In a second." I told them, "I just want to see if anything here can help us get home." Everyone walked out and I was left alone with Garland and a bunch of bats that had woken up. I knelt next to Garland and pulled off his helmet to reveal the man we fought on the ship, Scott.

The man woke up and was surprised to see me. "Little runt." he said.

"I've had enough of you Scott." I told him. "When will you give up?"

"As soon as you and your friends are dead."

"Well then." I concentrated and created lightning in my right hand, "I guess killing you would be the wisest thing to do." The man started to panic. "Goodbye Stereo, Scott, Garland, or whoever you are. Your time in this world is up. Have fun in the afterlife." I then sent the electricity through his body and killed him. Then I left his corpse as the bats started to eat.

* * *

As we walked back I told Alishia what I had done. "You did what!?" She was shocked and I quieted her, "How could you do something like that."

"I had to." I told her. "He said he wasn't going to give until we were dead."

"That's no excuse. We could have just defeated him every time."

"Well it's too late now. He's dead and there's no bringing him back."

"You're insane." She told me and we walked off to Cornelia in silence.

* * *

"Thank you for returning my daughter to my side." The king said to us. "There can be no doubt that you are the Warriors of Light from Lukahn's prophecy!" Alishia glared at me. "You should hear the prophecy in its entirety."

We sighed, _More long winded speaches, whoo-flippin-hoo_. "Ahem. If I may..." He looked over us and recited: "When darkness veils the world, four Warriors of Light shall come. If they cannot gather the shards of light, the darkness will consume all. The four Crystals will never shine again..." We looked at our necklaces. "Now I hear that a Crystal can be found on the continent to our north." He continued. "Restoring light to the Crystals is our only hope of ridding the world of the monsters which plague it! I will have the bridge to the north rebuilt, as I promised. I pray that you succeed in restoring light to the four Crystals- and to the world." Finally, we decided to leave.

"Wait just a moment!" Sarah yelled, as we were leaving, and we almost tripped over. We walked over to her and she said, "This lute has been entrusted to the princesses of Cornelia for many generations." She held a small, guitar-like, instrument. "When he abducted me, Garland took this lute as well. I want you to have it. It may aid you in your journey." She handed us the lute. We thanked her and left.

"So, all of that for a little guitar." I said. I held it in my hands and tried to play it. Needless to say, I sucked.

We stayed at the inn again that night. To our surprise, we accidentally seemed to have left Griff there. "Where have you been, jerks?" He asked in an annoyed voice.

"Fighting the best swordsman in the land." Alishia answered. "Even though he was easier to beat than a tree."

"Says you." I object. "You weren't the one who almost lost an arm!"

"You should have brought me with you."

"Why?" I asked, "You probably would have gotten hurt worse than anyone, if you came."

"I could have told you the enemy's weakness."

"Too bad it's extremely obvious." Donald asked.

"Then I could give you some tips on your adventure."

"That's my job, silly." The girl from before approached us and started to pet Griff.

"Who are you?" I asked the girl.

"I'm a dancer!" she answered. "You want to dance with me?"

"Not really." I answered, "We should really rest for our journey."

She laughed, "Ok. Bye then." and she left.

"She's weird." Donald announced and we walked into the inn. We paid thirty gil and went to bed in our rooms. I slept terribly. I was haunted by images of the man I had killed. Everyone else seemed to sleep like logs. Regardless, I went to bed as well.

* * *

We left before dawn had arrived. It was quiet in the morning but we knew it was dangerous beyond the walls of the town. We marched on to the bridge, carrying Griff and the lute. When we reached the bridge, it was light out and people had come to see us off and gave us some things to help us on our journey. They had given us a magic pouch so we could tons of items. We had also been given a cart to drive so that our travels weren't as long. We felt overwhelmed by the task that had been placed upon us. We also had no idea of the significance of the crystals. It was here that we only truly began our journey.


	6. Chapter 6

[Chapter 6]

[An Old Friend]

We were told that a town lay to the east so we followed the east cost. We fought many battles on the way and I practiced using my magic. I had become pretty good but I could only do a little with the spells I had. I learned that the charm with lightning was the thing that created the electricity. As I had thought, I was able to create fire with the flame charm. I was still wondering what the moon charm did. I was also curious in what Jordan could do with her magic items.

One night, we were attacked by a bunch of wolves. They outnumbered us in fighters but we took them down easily. Donald had gotten injured so I looked for some potions. Before I had found one, though, Jordan pulled out her green stone and healed him. I was amazed.

The next day, another packs of wolves attacked us. The only difference was that these looked tougher. I reached for a charm and pulled out the moon. _Of course_, I thought, _The one I DON'T know how to use_. I concentrated anyways. I focused on the wolves and some looked at me. I could feel magic around me and a fog formed. The fog put some of the wolves asleep. With this break, we defeated the wolves with ease and moved on.

After a while, I stop. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" I shouted. Everyone jumped and looked at me confused. "Someone say something already. I mean, are we all going to stay completely quiet the whole way there?"

"You scared us for that?" Donald asked. "I thought you were going to make us go on the journey while you kick back for a second."

"No way. This is the most fun I've had in a long time." I grinned. "There's no way you're going to keep it for yourselves."

"You think this is fun?" Jordan asked. "We're fighting monsters beyond our imagination-"

"-to save the world from total destruction." I finished with a huge grin on my face.

"I don't see anything wrong with this world." Griff said as he appeared on my hat.

"You didn't notice?" I asked and everyone looked confused. I then stood up and looked around. I knelt down when I found a bed of flowers and pointed to it. they looked normal at first glance and everyone stated this. "Look closer." I pointed out that the flowers were wilting, even though the sun was out and they had been watered in the storm so I told them this was probably because of a lack of nutrients in the soil. "If that wasn't enough." I gestured around us. "What is the one thing we haven't felt yet." A long pause. "Wind!" I blurt out, "Not a single wind has blown since we got here."

"So there's no wind and they have a gardening problem." Griff told me. "That's not a major problem"

I sigh, "Watch this." A walk away kneel down and do something nobody expected. I punched down and the ground swallowed my entire arm and I ripped a chunk of soil out. I gave it to Donald and asked, "How does it feel."

He felt it for a while. "Weird." He said. "It feels...."

"Dead?" I ask him.

"I guess. It's dry and clammy, not to mention it feels completely different from the soil at home."

"That's normal." Griff told him. "Soil is different all around the world."

"Is it always cloudy in some parts?" I ask while pointing up. Everyone looked up to see "Oh, and we know the sea has a problem." I point to the roaring waves.

Donald leaned over and whispered to Jordan, "How did we miss THAT?" She shrugged.

"Well let's get going alrea- what the heck is that?" I point to an ugly, slimy, bug-like thing that resembled a caterpillar.

"A Gigas Worm." Griff told us.

"You know this how?" Alishia asked.

"I had to do something when you ditched me so I studied monsters and a bunch of other things. Anyways thi-"

"Hey. If your going to tell us more about the worm thing, we killed it already while you were talking and we're leaving now." I told him.

We then headed onwards to the town. Griff stood there dumbfounded and depressed for a while and came with us muttering about how he's useless. We try to cheer him up but failed.

* * *

Pravoka. That was the name of the town we came to. It was a port town so I wasn't surprised to see a ship at the docks, but I was surprised to see only one. It was a small ship, nothing compared to the Legend, but it looked like it could hold a decent amount of crew members. We entered the town and immediately decided to rest at the inn. We saw a man and he decided to greet us with, "Please help us!" We were confused but we went on, ignoring the seemingly crazy person.

When we got to the inn, we saw a huge guy looking worried and asked him if anything was wrong. He said to us, "Those blasted pirates! They're running around looting and pillaging like they own the place."

"But isn't that what pirates are supposed to do?" Alishia asked but the man left, so we entered the inn and rested for the night.

* * *

The next day, we decided to check the pirate problem. We split into groups. Jordan with Donald and Alishia with me, although she wasn't too happy about that. Alishia and I found where they were. There were three of them, two regulars and a captain. The captain looked similar, but we knew he was nothing compared to the one we knew. When Donald and Jordan regrouped with us, we went to take care of them.

"Hey pirate dudes." I said (and felt like an idiot afterwards because of a stupid voice I used) "You better get out of town before we run you out."

The captain replied in a voice you would expect from a pirate, "Ye've got cannon balls of steel to be takin' on the great pirate Bikke!"

"C-cannon balls?" I ask myself.

Bikke then commanded his crew, "Keelhaul 'em boys!"

"Aye-aye, Cap'n! We'll make their bones go crunch!" They replied.

The two pirates then walked towards us and I said, "Sorry, but it's going to take more than two half-rate pirates to tie us to an anchor and clean the bottom of a boat with us."

"Yeah!" My friends roared then Donald asked, "Wait what?"

Before I answered, Bikke snapped his finger and seven more pirates appeared. They snicker. I sigh, yawn, then pull out my sleep charm. I put about half of them to sleep. Donald and Alishia took care of two of them already and Jordan put a barrier around me with one of her charms. We defeated the rest with ease.

After we knocked everyone out, Bikke said, "I be most sorry, young masters. I'll be makin' no more fuss, I swear. I want ye to take me ship fer yer troubles. Can ye find it in yer heart to fergive an old pirate?"

"Only if you give back everything you stole from this town." I tell him.

"Ok. Ok." He then ran off.

"He's not giving anything back, is he?" I asked out loud and everyone shook there heads.

We visited the shops and got some equipment for our journey. When we visited the magic shops, I bought a new charm that had a snowflake symbol on it. It was obvious that it could freeze things. The store owner called it a Blizzard charm. In the white magic shop, Jordan bought a charm with an eye on it. It was called "Blindna" and it could apparently clear vision. She also asked about the sun charm. She was told that the sun charm was called "Dia" and it could help slay the undead. Great, I thought, now we have to deal with things like zombies, ghosts, and... then a thought hit me.

"Hey miss." I began, "Do you know if we could find any vampires anywhere?" Everyone listened intently. We were all interested in vampires and would be more than glad to meet one.

"Hmmmm." The lady thought for a moment. "I have no idea." That depressed some of us, mostly me and Alishia. "Maybe you should ask around at Melmond." Hope was renewed. "Maybe someone there knows about one."

"Why that town?" Donald asked.

The owner leaned in and whispered, "Something's wrong with that town. The life seems to be being sucked away from it."

"Alright." I say. "Then tomorrow, we head for Melmo-"

"Impossible." I was interrupted and depression returned. "The way by sea is blocked off, and there are mountains in the way by land."

"Well, what do we do then?"

"You could meet with the witch, Matoya. She's to the north west of the bridge connecting to Cornelia. She could help you out."

"You've got to be kidding." Alishia says. "We just came from there."

"It's faster by boat, than on land." The lady said.

"Good thing we just got one." Jordan said.

"Speaking of which," Donald started, "We should rest at the inn before we set sail."

"Good idea, Donald." I agreed. "I'm not in the mood to go sailing just yet, after our last trip." We then thanked the lady for her kindness and left.

* * *

Later, we were eating dinner and talking at then inn when we heard an argument of sorts at the front desk. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEIR GONE!?" We heard through the walls and we also heard a loud slamming noise short afterward. I went over and eavesdropped on the conversation along with everyone else in my group, even though you could hear it across the room.

"They left town earlier today." The lady at the desk said in her familiar voice.

"That's a bloody lie!" a man shouted.

"Mr. Cid," it was pronounced 'Sid' "I would advise you don't disturb the guests."

"To hell with them! What about my group?" Cid yelled, "They said they would meet me on the ship as soon as they were done with their business!" He must have been one of the pirates I guessed.

"You mean robbing the entire town."

A sigh from the man, "Yes. Anyways, what am I supposed to do now? I can't just take the control of the ship, I need to pay the captain for that and I don't have enough money AND I can't find him."

"Well, I overheard that the captain gave away the ship to four young warriors that defeated-"

"WHAT!? Four young warriors? Was there a tall kid with a ridiculously sized robe and hat, a dark-skinned runt wearing a black vest, semi-tall girl wearing a white and red robe, and a pale boy with really long hair wearing a white tank top and gloves?" We looked at us as the man described us but wondered who the last boy was.

"Yes... except for that last boy... but there was a girl like that." We looked at Alishia then. She was obviously very annoyed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that she was a girl for a second. Where are they?" We had to hold Alishia back from charging into the room.

"In the next room"

Immediately, the door opened and we fell through to find the exact man we expected. "Captain!" we all cheer. He looked the same as last time, except he wasn't wearing a blue coat and he wore an eye patch and bandana.

"Wait." I correct myself, "Maybe we should call you Cid now." We laugh and the old man turns red in the face, either from embarrassment or rage.

"Shut it you little runts!" He yelled at us, "I've been looking all over for you after I fell off that driftwood!"

"By the way." I start. "What happened after that?"

"I fell off and was rescued by pirates. They told me to lose the coat, put on an eye patch and bandanna, and join there crew or I would be either keelhauled or thrown overboard. I was too tired to fight them so I did what they said and worked as their helmsman."

"So you work for us now, by that logic." Donald said.

"Unfortunately." He replied hurtfully.

"Well the first order is," I begin, "lose the eye patch."

"Done." He took it off.

"Second," Alishia said, "lose the bandanna."

"Deal." He took that off and let his unruly hair down.

"Third." Jordan said, "Put your coat on."

"Yes mom." He joked.

"Fourth," Donald pitched in, "You will become captain of the new ship."

"Alright!" he exclaimed.

"But," I began and he sighed, "You have to travel with us at all times."

"And why would I do that?" he challenged and we all pointed to my cap. He was confused.

"Huh? Wha-? Oh!" Griff appeared on my cap, "Cid! It's so good to see you again, buddy!" Cid's jaw dropped. "What? do I have something on my claws, face, back or-" the scorpion looked at Cid. "Oh yeah, you don't know I can... talk... oh." Cid passed out.

* * *

The next day, Cid woke up later than the rest of us, at almost 3 p.m. to be exact. He woke up with, "Oi, my head. Did I sleep on a rock or something."

"No. But you slept like one." I told him.

"I'm not in the mood Bram." Yet again mispronounced. "Now where's my cane?"

"Cane?" We were confused.

"Yeah, my leg is broken." He shows a cast under his pant leg. "I don't know how though. It must have caught on something when we went overboard."

"That would explain all the driftwood." Alishia said.

"Yeah. But could someone please get my ca-"

"I got it dude." Griff came in dragging a cane embedded with jewels. It was obviously a spoil of treasure from the pirates.

"Thanks Griff." Cid said as he grabbed the cane.

"You seem to take me talking very lightly." Griff said in a sarcastic tone. "You were out for the longest time in the world."

"Give me a break. I've been through a lot this week. Getting thrown off my ship, losing the four people I'm responsible for, getting kidnapped by pirates, almost getting keelhauled every time there was a mistake. It's been hectic."

"Ok that's it!" Donald yelled. "What the heck does getting keelhauled mean?"

I explain, "It's where someone is tied to the anchor of a ship and used to clean the bottom of barnacles, seaweed, and other things."

"That seems dangerous."

"It's a punishment. it's basically sentencing someone to death by drowning." Donald swallowed hard.

"Well, let's go." I said and started for the door. I stopped when I noticed no one following and smiled, "You all can stay in town for a while, but I'll be on the ship if you need me." I walked out and headed for the ship on my own.

* * *

The ship was small so I made a mental map. For me, it would be impossible to get lost. To be honest, I was mad. I was the weakest of the group and almost got killed in every fight. I stepped off the ship to looked for a fight with a monster. I found a wild horse. But it was different from a regular horse, it had sharp teeth and a horn on it's head. I found it eating the flesh of some dead monster. I pulled out my new spell and concentrated. The air around the horse started to solidify and the horse froze. I yelled triumphantly and got ready to shatter the frozen figure. Then the statue broke and the horse was freed. It was in pain from the spell but it still knocked me down hard. Then three more horses appeared and started to trample me, one by one. I thought I was dead on the last horse when a barrier appeared and the horse did very little damage. Then, Donald beheaded one of the horses with his newly bought axe. Alishia snapped the neck of another horse with her nunchaku and Jordan healed my injuries. I then cast a fire spell at the horse I froze earlier and killed it in searing flames. Donald and Alishia made quick work of the last horse after that.

Tired and frustrated, Donald asked, "What the heck's your problem?! You could've been killed!"

"That IS my problem." I answered harshly, "I'm the one who almost dies every time we fight. I'm the weakest person. If it hadn't been for Jordan, I would be dead long ago."

"That's no excuse. We work together or not at all, Bram. If we don't, we'll all end up dead. Everyone. You, Me, Jordan, Alishia, Cid, Griff, and the whole world. Now what made you think you could take on four Crazy Horses on your own?"

"There was only one in the beginning, and I thought I could kill it in one shot with blizzard." Donald sighed. I grabbed my staff that I dropped. "Now let's go. We've got a mission."

"Which would be what?" Alishia asked.

"We've got to see Matoya the Witch, right?"

* * *

Sailing went by faster than we thought, especially since the waves were so rough. We didn't see a single monster on the ocean, but we knew they were out there somewhere. We passed under the bridge to Cornelia and saw some familiar people, like the dancer and the people who rescued us. We waved to them and they waved back.

"Friends of yours?" Cid asked.

"Not really." Donald told him, "We've only seen them a few times and barely talked to them."

"I see." Cid sailed the ship with such skill, you could have easily thought that he spent his entire life on a boat. Which is exactly what I thought.

After a while, we finally reached a port and headed north. We fought a couple of monsters on the way, but that only encouraged my early statement of me being the weakest. Cid didn't fight with us because his leg hindered all of his skills. Instead, he just stood away from the battles.

Finally, we reached a cave and entered. The inside was designed more like an old styled house. When we walked further inside, we saw a broom. Now that shouldn't be interesting but it was sweeping the floor, by it's self. The thing even talked. It said, "Front-wards, back-wards, any way you see! Such a strange spell to swish-swish-aree! Tceles Nottub B. Swish-swish-aroo!" and it... uh... swept away... I guess.

"When did we walk into Disney Land?" I asked.

"I don't know and don't want to know." Alishia said. On that note, we walked into the next room. As we did, we heard a loud thump and someone said, "Ouch!" We walked to the table in the center of the room, ignoring the other sweeping brooms, and saw an old lady screaming, "My eye...my eye!" She then walked towards a chair behind the table and tripped." Ouch!" She walked further.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I can't see a blasted thing without my crystal eye!" She faced us and we saw that she had one blind eye and an empty eye socket which almost made Donald throw up. "Who could have stolen it from me?"

We talked amongst ourselves excluding Cid and Griff who were sitting by a wall, "I think we should help her find her eye." I announced.

"How?" Donald asked, "We don't know where to look or what it looks like."

"Honestly, Donald." Alishia started, "It's an eye made of crystal how hard could that be to find."

"But how do we find it?" he asked again.

"The dancer." Jordan said. "She knows all sorts of things remember?"

"But how will we know if it's the right crystal eye?" he pestered.

"If it can give sight to a blind woman, then it's magical." I told him.

"So?"

"I can see magic energy. so it should be easy."

After a long pause, Donald said, "Ok fine, we'll go to Cornelia then." and we headed to the town where our insane journey began. On our way out though, the brooms were chanting the same thing as the first one did. I thought it out in my mind, Tceles Nottub B...

"B...Button...Select?" I wondered out loud.

"This isn't the time to think about game controls, Bram." Donald said.

"No, that's what the brooms are saying, but back-wards." I then put my hands in a position that resembled me holding a game controller and pressed those two buttons in my mind. Then a map appeared in my hand. That in it's self should have scared us, but what really scared everyone was that we didn't recognize anywhere on the map, even if we turned it side-ways or up-side-down. "I told you we're not on earth anymore." I said.

"Then where are we?" Jordan asked.

"Final Fantasy One!" I pestered them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Donald asked.

"It means we're not going home for a long time." Alishia answered and she walked out.


	7. Chapter 7

[Chapter 7]

[Men, Elves, and Dwarves]

We gave the new map to Griff so he didn't feel useless. On our way back to the boat, we ran into a creature twice my size, with bulging muscles, and tattered clothes. It carried a huge club. Griff was about to tell us what it was but I interrupted him with, "It's an Ogre." I then pulled out my Blizzard charm and concentrated. The thing was fast. Jordan tried to put up a barrier around me but the monster swung it's club and slammed me into a tree. Alishia and Donald attacked and dazed it. Then I froze the beast and shattered it into 6 pieces.

"What a pitiful creature," I said while kicking around it's frozen head. "It has such a small mind that only relies on brute strength. Kind of reminds me of... Scott." I almost said Garland.

I saw Alishia glare at me from the corner of my eye. Still mad at me, she had every right to be. I committed an unforgivable sin. I killed a human being in vein, which is looked down upon in most religions. I knew that I would not be forgiven, no matter how many lives I saved or how many times I saved them and blah blah blah. I told myself I had no other choice. Donald didn't have the guts to kill a man, Jordan was too innocent to do something like that, and I would never put the burden of killing someone on Alishia. We would have to kill him sooner or later. I just did it sooner. I knew I would have to tell everyone someday. I just prayed that Alishia didn't tell them first.

After getting to the boat, we sailed south and entered Cornelia. It was strange, but I felt a sense of homecoming when we entered through the gates. We immediately went and met with the dancer. When she saw Cid her eyes lit up and she said, "Hi there! I'm a dancer!" He was going to say something but she interrupted with, "What's that? You wanna dance with me? Hee hee!"

"Not really." He told her.

"Aw. What do you want then?" She pouted.

"We'd just like to know if you've heard about Matoya's Crystal eye." I told her.

"Hmmm..... Nope!" we all sighed. "But..." She got our attention, "Have you been to the Western Keep?" We shook our heads and she whispered, "They say the crown from the Marsh Cave can restore the fallen keep."

"How do we get to this Western Keep?" Donald asked.

"First, sail south to Elfhiem. Then, go north and you'll find it."

"We seem to be going north a lot." Jordan said.

"Then south then north again." Alishia added.

Then we headed on to the ship and sailed south... again.

* * *

The trip was almost uneventful. But, wouldn't you know it, we were attacked by a shark. I mean, the thing actually jumped on deck and started attacking us. The thing bit me first, of course, and it hurt. I decided to get revenge and started to cast Thunder. I formed the electricity in my hand and blasted it, but then it bit me again and almost killed me. Donald and Alishia then knocked it out and threw it overboard. I kept calling myself useless until we reached Elfhiem.

We almost made it when two Ogres attacked us. Oh joy, I thought, as if one weren't enough. Unlucky me got hit by another club to the face... again. Donald fought on his own against one while Alishia and I took out the first. We made quick work of the second one and moved on.

* * *

As expected, Elfhiem was inhabited by elves. They were the tall, sophisticated elves. Not the short ones that worked at Santa's workshop. Thank whatever god there may be for that, is what I thought. I didn't want to deal with something like that.

We visited the shops and bought some better equipment. I myself got a dagger while Alishia got some iron nanchaku. We then went to get some armor. We then visited the magic shops, only to find we didn't have enough money to buy anything. So, we visited all the magic shops, made a list of all the spells we could use, and found out that we needed a total of TEN THOUSAND gil to buy them all.

"That shouldn't be too hard." Jordan said.

"It's freaking impossible to get that much!" Donald yelled.

"No it's not." Alishia told him, "We get loads of money from killing monsters."

"I guess. What do you think, Bram?" I didn't pay attention to him, I was looking north at the castle. They looked with me. It looked vaguely familiar but I forgot where from. As if possessed though, I broke out running towards the building. I saw magic emanating from the building. Either something was wrong or there was a magic item in there. Everyone ran after me but I used a bit of magic to make me run faster.

After a bit running, I reached the castle and two guards greeted me. "Is something wrong in this castle?" I asked them and everyone else joined me.

They told me, "Astos's curse has put our prince into a deep sleep from which he cannot awake." He saw our crystals, bowed, and pleaded, "Please, will you not attempt to aid our slumbering prince?"

"We'll do whatever we can." I assured him. "So the first plan is... get someone to kiss him." Everyone looked at me like I was insane. "Sleeping Beauty." I told them and they nodded, although the guards were confused.

"You're not getting me to kiss someone I've never met." Alishia said. We all looked at Jordan. She shook her head as fast as possible.

"Did the prince have a girlfriend or any suitors?" Donald asked. The guards shook their heads. "Well then, there goes Plan A. What's Plan B?"

"We look for Astos and try to get him to lift the curse. Now where is he?" I thought for a while. Then it hit me. "Take us to the prince." I demanded.

We were lead to a room with a bed in the center. In the bed, laid a boy around our age. There was a magic aura around him. I saw that the aura was very bright and large. It was dark magic, like mine, but more powerful and more evil. "How long has he been like this?" I asked the other man in the room.

He answered, "The prince has slept under Astos's curse for five years now."

"Any ideas on how to wake him?"

"There must be some medicine that can rouse the sleeping... but where?" We all thought and I snapped my fingers.

"Matoya the witch!" I yelled. "Maybe she can make the medicine."

"Can you go get it from her?" the man asked.

"She's blind right now." Donald told him, "Someone stole her crystal eye."

"I think Astos had something like that."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He fled to the west and then to the north."

"To the Western Keep?"

"Yeah."

Without another word, we left and headed west as fast as possible. But then I was poisoned so we quickly turned back to get an antidote.

"It seems I'll need to get that 'Poisona' spell quickly." Jordan laughed. Poisona basically was a magic antidote.

"It's not funny." I told her. "It sucks to slowly die." I didn't feel pain so much as sickness and looked sick too.

"You okay dude?" Donald asked.

"Hey. Dude is my word, not yours." I smiled sickly, "I'm just a little sick is all."

"Well we did just rush out." Alishia said. "Maybe we should rest before we leave again."

"Yeah, but first..." I pulled out 500 gil. "Give us ten antidotes."

"Ten!?" Donald was shocked. "Why ten?"

"I don't feel like dying to poison, and Jordan can't even use 'Poisona' until she masters the next level of magic first." I grabbed the medicine from the elf at the desk.

"Ummm..." the elf began, "You could buy a Phoenix Down."

"A what?"

"It's a plant that can sometimes bring back th-" I stopped him.

"Please don't finish. Dying is one thing, but being brought back to life is another. I don't want to become a zombie unless it's necessary. Plus, the thing probably costs a lot."

"Yes it does, I'm sorry." He bowed his head

"It's okay. I'm just glad to be alive right now."

"I see. Well, take care then." He waved as we left.

"See you around dude."

* * *

At the inn, we all realized something. "Where are Cid and Griff?" I asked. Everyone shrugged and I sighed.

"Cid and Griff." The person at the desk said aloud. "Do you mean a tall man wearing a blue coat with a scorpion on his shoulder?"

"Yeah." We sighed in unison.

"I saw him heading to the castles storehouse. They said something about unlocking it for someone." We then went back out to see what they were doing.

When we found them, they were staring at a lock that was on the door to a small building in the back of the castle grounds. A guy was explaining something to Cid. "... and we can't get inside." the elf ended as we came up.

"Have no worries," Cid began while rolling up his sleeves, "Someone taught me how to lock pick once and I remember most of the lessons."

"Who was this man?"

He hesitated and stared at the man with a weirded out look and answered, "...My little sister." The guy looked a little embarrassed at that answer. Cid rolled his eyes, "But she was taught by a weirdo on my ship who learned it from a really bad reading habit that he has." The guy looked less embarrassed. "How does it look Griff?" The arachnid was climbing on the lock and looking into the keyhole.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, boss." He said and the guy jumped at him speaking. Then Cid took out a lockpick and set to work. The only problem was that Cid was electrocuted when he tried to pick the lock and the pick melted.

"That won't work." I told him late, deliberately.

"Why not, and why are just now telling me this?" Cid asked.

"One, because it's a magic lock and you'll need the key to unlock it, and two, it was revenge for not coming with us." He called me a jerk. "Look who's talking. Now come on, we're staying at the inn tonight." He followed us, depressed that he missed his chance at treasure. When we asked what he meant by that, he told us that the treasure in the storehouse and the stolen treasures go to whoever unlocks the door and to whoever finds the others.

"So it's finder's keepers loser's weepers?" Donald asked.

"Pretty much." Griff told him. "We heard you talking about needing money so we were trying to get the treasures."

"Don't worry about it." I told them as we headed into the inn. "We've got a job to do right now and I'm sure we'll make plenty of money on our journey to find Astos." Then I went to my room.

"Where are you going?" Alishia asked.

"Bed." I told her, "I've got some things I need to think about. I don't like half-solved puzzles."

"Puzzles? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means: something is not right. How did we get here, what do these crystals have to do with this prophecy we were told of, and what are we supposed to do exactly? I just need to think about these things until I can find the answers or until we are given the answers."

"Okay, but let me know if you figure anything out."

"You'll be the first to know." I promised her, walked into my room, and fell asleep. For once, in a very, very long time, I had a dream.

In the dream, I was watching the world being destroyed. I saw the earth dying away, fires raging, winds roaring violently, and the seas swallowing islands in the distance. I then saw four giant shadows, each one causing the damage being done. Then a bright light shone through the dream and I woke up before it ended. I half expected one of those dreams that would tell me what to do on a journey. "I read way too much if I thought that would happen." I told myself. "But maybe there was something important there." I thought about the four shadows.

As promised, I explained everything to Alishia. "I see, so you think four beings are destroying this world and it's up to us to stop them." It wasn't a question.

"Pretty much. I vagely remember doing that in Final Fantasy 1. Maybe Astos is one of those beings." I guessed. I couldn't remember wether he was or not.

"If so, we need to stop him." I nodded and she put a finger in my face, "But you better not kill him, Bram. Not unless it's absolutely necessary."

"I swear to whatever god this world has that I will only kill unless those conditions are met." I bowed to her.

"You better remember that." She walked away, I grabbed the bag that held our items, my dagger, and made sure that my crystal was still around my neck. Then I started west with everyone.

* * *

When we entered the valley to the west, we were attacked by an undead creature. Griff called it a 'Ghast,' we thought he said ghost though, and we tried to correct him. Either way, we disposed of the moving corpse easily. We traveled through a thick forest and got lost a few times after fighting monsters and losing our bearings of where we were. We even had to go around a river where a bunch of monsters gathered. Finally, we made it to a ruined building. I could see magic emanating from the entire building. We immediately knew it was the Western Keep and entered.

Inside was exactly like we expected... ruins. There were holes in the walls, bats were flying around, and dust, decay, and rubble was everywhere. The bats brought back some unwanted memories, I tried not to show it, but failed. The thoughts of killing Garland made me dizzy.

"You okay?" Donald asked. He saw my sick looking face.

"I might need to get some sun." I told him with a grin, "I don't get much with this huge hat on my head." He didn't seemed convinced. "Look, dude, I'm fine. I'm just a little light headed is all." I sat down. "I'll just rest here for a bit. You go on ahead and I'll catch up to you all."

"Fine with me." Cid said. "Have fun when you get eaten by bats."

"He won't have to worry." Alishia said. "Because I'm staying with him."

"Heh?" I was a bit shocked by that statement.

Donald then thought and said, "Okay, just make sure you keep him out of trouble."

"Honestly, what am I going to do? Turn into a bad guy and kill you all off one by one?"

"Now that you mention it..." He sneered.

"Wow, you've become a jerk recently. Anyways, tell us if you find anything."

"Wait, you're letting Alishia stay here with you?" Jordan asked. I don't know her as well as Donald does, but my stubbornness apparently was easy to catch on to.

"Yeah, I'd never win in a fight against her unless I can 100% prove my end of the argument." So, they left the two of us by the door. We sat there for a while in silence until I told her, "You're mad."

"Yes I am." She confirmed

"Why?" I was curious.

"'Why' what?"

"Why, exactly, are you mad?"

"You killed someone."

"So?" I was intent on finding out why she was so mad about that.

"What do you mean 'So'? How can I trust you now? How do I know you won't go on an insane killing spree?"

"The pirates are all alive, I haven't killed a person ever since then, and everyone, else in our group, is alive." I nodded towards the inside of the keep.

She sighed. I could tell there was something else so I asked, "Is that all?"

"No. Donald kind of said that you might try to-"

"Say no more. I know what he said and I'll tell you he always thinks that."

"Really, but he said-" I stared at her hard and she gave up, "Okay. Fine."

"Thanks and don't worry about it anymore. Okay?" I got up without her answering. "Well I feel better after that little chat. What do you say we go looking too?" I reached to help her up but she got up herself. So it's like that, I thought, well then, getting her trust back might actually be fun. I grinned and hid my face from view. I then went to help her search for the others.

We searched for a while. Alishia kept looking in my direction when she finally asked, "Why are you hiding your face?"

"I just don't want my face to show what I'm thinking." I half-lied. I was also covering the guilt that was showing on my face as well. "But I'm going to tell everyone else that this place makes me a little sick."

"Whatever." She sighed. I could tell that she didn't buy it.

She probably would have asked something if it weren't for the long, "HEY!" from Jordan. She went on to say, "We found someone."

"Who?" Alishia and I asked at the same time.

"The king of this keep apparently." she pointed to a man in the center of the room who sat on a throne.

"I was tricked by Astos, king of the dark elves, and now my castle has fallen into ruin." He said in a hoarse, dry, and tired voice. "If I could only retrieve the crown from the Marsh Cave, I would be able to restore my castle. Might you bring me the crown?"

"Have you even tried to get it back?" I asked him. He just looked at me. I guessed that was why he was tired and I shrugged. "If we get your crown, will you take us to Astos?" He nodded. "Then don't worry, old man. We'll get it back." I headed for outside. "Come on guys, let's go explore a cave." I grinned. "Griff, can you find it on the map?"

He looked at it for a while. "It's to the-"

"Please." Alishia pleaded, "Please don't say it's to the south."

"Sorry." I couldn't help but feel bad for Griff and Alishia.

Not much to say about the trip to the cave. Everyone doubted I could use the dagger well but I proved them wrong when I used it somewhat expertly. They asked how I know how to use a dagger. I told them I practiced using knives when there was no one around. They probably thought I was insane at that moment.

The cave really wasn't a cave. It was actually a hole at the edge of a marsh land. Jordan slipped and fell but Donald grabbed her in time to stop her from falling into the cave. We then properly descended into it just to be greeted by another bat in my face. I chased the thing away. Everyone teased me about being a scarecrow again. I was surprised they remembered that.

The cave split into two paths, so we split into groups. Cid and Griff would hang tight at the entrance. Alishia and I would take the south path, she was still upset. Finally, Donald and Jordan would take the north path. We would come back if we found a way deeper in.

Half way through the tunnel, I saw something moving. Alishia did too. There were three things. All of them resembled a Grim reaper. They just stared at us for a while. I then asked Alishia what she thought we should do. She suggested fighting so I ran off and stabbed one. It just stared at me. Alishia managed to destroy one with a single blow. The one I fought hit me with it's cane, and it kind of felt like I got hit with a broom. I then pulled out my dagger and it fell apart. Alishia had disposed of the other quickly. "That was weird." She stated and I nodded in agreement. We then found a hole behind a door at the end of the cave.

We rested in the room for a while. Alishia then asked, "Why am I always grouped with you?"

"Because Griff is useless and Cid can't fight." I told her.

"What about Donald and Jordan?"

"They need time to hang out. They barely see each other."

"So I'm only here because no one else is available?"

"No I'd choose you as a partner anytime."

"Why me?"

"Your more fun to hang out with." I shrugged and stood up. "We should get going now. The others will be waiting."

On our way back, we fought four more of those weird things from earlier. When we reached the entrance, Donald and Jordan said they had similar fights. They had also found another hole to the north. We decided to go north first, because we seemed to have a lot of luck going north. What we found was a bunch of treasure and a bunch of monsters. I came close to death A LOT. We searched but there was no way farther down, so we went back up to try the entrance Alishia and I found.

Down there were three chests, but all of them were open and empty. So we looked for some way down and found a staircase. We went down to find a huge cavern with some rooms spread out. The layout kind of resembled a maze. We decided to check each room. The first had a chest, and inside was a plant that Griff identified as a phoenix down. I got nervous when he told me that.

Donald got poisoned on our way to the next few rooms. I told him that the antidotes were a good idea. Now he agreed. A few rooms were empty but some had chests that contained gil, a cottage (which kind of scared us), and some equipment. One room had a chest that was surrounded by a bunch of statues. They kind of gave me a bad feeling. Regardless we approached the chest.

As soon as I stepped up to the chest, three statues came alive and attacked us. Jordan kept us, mainly me, alive while each of us attacked one. They were way too tough though, so we fled. We entered the other rooms to see what we could find. After searching, we only found some gil, so we went back to fight the monsters. Three of them appeared again. A few seconds into the fight, one of the things comes up and stabs me through the heart. Everything went quiet, then I saw Donald and Alishia attack one of the things. I died and everything went black.

I felt like I was air. I couldn't feel, hear, see, or smell anything. I felt tired and wanted to sleep. Then I heard someone yelling, "Get up! Bram, please get up!" I opened my eyes to see that Phoenix Down putting life into me. I can't remember how exactly. Donald was holding it. Although I came back to life, I was still way too tired to do anything, so Jordan healed me. I woke up to see Alishia killing one of the monsters and fighting another. So I casted Blizzard on the other as it struck me again. This time, I survived and Donald killed it. Alishia made quick work of the other one.

Donald asked, "Are you okay, Bram." There was panic in his eyes.

"Of course I'm fine," I said sarcasticly, "I just died, got brought back to life, and almost died again."

"He's fine." Alishia said. She was looking away so I couldn't tell whether she was worried, relieved, or something else.

Jordan then declared, "Let's open the chest before more of those things come back." So I staggered over to the chest and opened it to find a crown.

"Finally." I sighed with relief. I grabbed the crown, held it over my head, and yelled as loud as I could. Then I exclaimed, in the cheesiest voice ever, "Don't mess with us you monsters!!! Even if you kill us, we'll still slay you!!!" Everyone just stared for a while in surprise then laughed. I joined them.

Jordan healed my wounds then. She looked pretty tired. The magic around her was dwindling. She would need rest soon. I told her to take it real easy while we were leaving. When we got out, we rested in the cottage we found. When we woke up, Donald declared, "Now let's head to the Western Keep and-"

"HOLD IT!" I interrupted, "We should go to Elfhiem first."

"Why? We should go give the crown back A.S.A.P."

"But if we go there now, we'll have to fight Astos. We should head to Elfhiem so Jordan and I can learn some spells."

"Sounds like a plan." Alishia said. Donald looked at her skeptically. "Look, Bram and Jordan are basically useless in combat."

"Wow, thanks a whole freaking lot." Jordan and I said at the same time.

Alishia rolled her eyes, "But if we go to Elfhiem first they will be more useful."

So we traveled to Elfhiem. When we got there, we went to the magic stores and bragged about how we got enough money for the spell. Donald wanted to punch us. This time, I didn't get charms, I got bracelets with the magic symbols. Jordan got necklaces for her magic. We then rested in the inn and headed for the Western Keep the next day. I practiced using my bracelets for magic.

In the first fight we got ourselves into, I used my Fira spell. I knew it would be powerful, but I didn't expect flames coming out of the ground. I then concentrated and enveloped my whole arm in flames. I used these as a flame thrower to kill enemies. When I used Thundara, lightning bolts struck all of our enemies. I was also able to shoot the electricity out of my hands like I saw in the Star Wars movies I used to watch. I practiced to the point where I could create the fire or electricity within the enemy ranks or their bodies. I would have used the Blizzara, but I knew it would be tiring to use it too much.

Finally, we met with the king of the keep again and showed him the crown. He stared at it long and hard then laughed, "Muwahaha!" We were all surprised. "You fools fell right into my trap! I AM Astos, king of the dark elves!"

"What?!" We all yelled in unison. Then the king transformed into a boney old man with blue skin.

Astos then said, "With the combined power of the crown you now hold and the crystal eye I already possess..." he held a jewel the size of an eye, "I will become the TRUE elf king!" he reached for the crown but I backed away, "It is useless to resist me! I can take what is mine by sheer force!" Then he lunged at as, screaming. Cid and Griff had ran out as soon as he transformed.

I immediately tried Blizzara, which I had been saving for else attacked. Astos tried to kill Donald with a spell he called death, but he failed. I cast my spell and the Dark Elf was encased in glaciers of ice. I then snapped my fingers and the ice shattered. I immediately felt a little tired so I decided to stick with my favorite spell, Thundara. Donald knocked him down with Alishia's help and we took the crystal eye.

"Okay." I panted. "Using Blizzara... really sucks." Donald called me a wimp and I zapped his foot with a weakened Thunder spell. He jumped back from the small charge. We all laughed, except for Donald, and started walking out.

As we were walking out, Astos got up and lunged at us. Everyone, besides me, had turned in shock as he ran at us, he would kill us for sure. I then snapped my fingers and created Thundara in his body. The elf screamed and writhed in agony as electricity bounded through him and escaped. Soon he was dead and everyone knew who was to blame for it.

"What the hell did you just do?!" Donald yelled.

"Isn't it obvious?" I shrugged, "I added another person's head to my collection."

"Another?" Jordan was shocked, "What do you mean another."

I sighed and explained everything about me killing Garland and about how he was Scott. I left out the fact that I told Alishia.

"I don't believe it." Donald told me. "I've been traveling with a murderer.

"No you haven't." I said sighed, "I killed Garland because he was going to hunt us down and I killed Astos because he was going to kill us first." Donald was about to protest but I cut him off, "Before you say another word, know this: They are already dead, and there's no bringing them back. It's better if we leave it as that. Also, be glad that I didn't leave it up to you to kill him. I did us all a favor." I then stormed out, holding the Crystal Eye, Crown, and the Lute, all of which I was in charge of.

* * *

Donald and Jordan stayed behind for a while, apparently Cid and Griff understood and Alishia must have been used to me being a killer by then. Soon Donald an Jordan joined with us, they both looked depressed. I guess what I told had sunk in because we went on like we normally would. We all fought as a great group. I took out the chunks of annoying enemies, Donald and Alishia focused on the stronger ones, and Jordan kept us alive. She needed to keep me alive a little less now because I wasn't useless anymore.

We rested at the inn in Elfhiem. Then we headed to Matoya's cave. We fought monsters, blah, blah, blah, and we got there. I spoke to the blind witch first, "Excuse me, Ms. Matoya, but I believe I have your Crystal Eye." I held out the gem.

"Oh, What's this?" She looked in our direction and felt the jewel in my hand. "My Crystal Eye? Give it here! Don't worry, I have something to give you in exchange. Take this potion. It's the most amazing potion in my entire collection!" We were handed a vile full of yellow liquid labeled Jolt Tonic. She swiped the eye away and cut my hand slightly with her nails. She then stuck the thing inside her empty eye socket, which almost made Donald throw up. "Ahh! I can see again!" She looked at me and said, "You still here? I don't need you anymore, so be on your way! Hmph! You're not even as attractive as I thought you'd be..."

"What did you say, old bag?!" I felt my face turn red.

"Just get out of here you little brat. You can take the contents of those chests if you want. JUST GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!!" So we did as she said and left. The chests contained two potions and an antidote.

* * *

When we got to Elfhiem, we went straight to the castle and gave the healer the Jolt Tonic. He thanked us and said, "This Jolt Tonic may be what we need to break the curse and awaken the prince! I will try it at once."

"If it doesn't work, we could always try the Sleeping Beauty idea." I joked.

The healer poured the contents of the vile into the prince's mouth. "Your Highness? Your Highness!" The boy woke up.

"I was having...a terrible nightmare...Am I still... dreaming?" The boy seemed tired, even though he slept for years. The boy looked at us, "You...you're the legendary warriors! Something tells me I'm not dreaming...I shall follow the legend as it has been told by my forefathers. The time for me to pass on the mystic key to it's rightful owners has come at last." He then handed us a small ring with a thin pole stretching off of it.

"Wait. _You_ had the magic key this _entire_ time?" Donald asks.

"Why yes of course."

"You know, he was asleep Donald. He couldn't have known about the locked warehouse." I explained to him. After a while Donald calmed down. We thanked the prince and left for the locked doors we found.

First, we tried the warehouse and found a mythril hammer that we gave to Jordan, 1500 hundred gil, and some bronze gloves which we gave to Donald. Then, we searched the western keep and found three chests. I stepped up to the first and monsters called Wraiths, they were like the shadows, appeared. I made quick work of them. I opened the chest and grabbed a sword that widened at the tip that no one used. Mummies appeared at the second and third chests. They guarded a green staff which I used, and steel gloves for Donald. We left the keep after I idiotically made more Wraiths. Then we went back to the Marsh Caves, I got some revenge on those statues, and we found a silver armlet for me, an antidote, and 1020 gil. Finally, we went back to Chaos shrine. I didn't feel sick in the place, in fact it felt good to be back in the place. There, we found a orange sword that was inscribed with the word Werebuster that Donald used, a gold needle that Griff said was for curing someone of being turned to stone, and another sword inscribed Rune Blade. Then we visited Cornelia's and found some locked doors. Inside, we found a cottage, a saber, a mythril knife, iron armor, a tent, and a box of Nitro Powder. Everyone put me in charge of the explosives.

"We can't keep this!" I told them, "We need to get rid of it soon."

"Where are we going to find someone who wants the most explosive substance in the entire world?" Griff asked.

"The dancer might know." Alishia answered, "She usually does."

"Great, let's go." I carried the box with relative ease. In the town we saw the dancer. "Hey, we need to ask you a question."

"What is it?" She asked.

"Do you know anyone who wants explosives?" Donald asked.

"Nerrick the dwarf has been looking for powerful explosives. I wonder what he's gonna use them for?" Great, I thought, We were greeted by men, we met elves, and now we're going to see dwarves. What is this, Lord of the Rings? Then the dancer said, "Nerrick can be found at Mount Duergar. You can dock at a port to the west of Earthgift Shrine and go south west."

Then we thanked her and sailed west. When we got to the port we headed south west like we were told. Soon, we saw a huge mountain with a cave in the side. We entered the cave. In the cave, we heard sounds of hammering and the ceiling got lower to where I had to duck a little, a lot for me. We went deeper and saw short, muscular old men who were carrying mining equipment. None of them were working but the sound was still there. We asked where Nerrick was and they said at the deepest part of the mine. We then saw a man working alone. We then showed him the box. He then exclaimed, "Nitro pouder!" he opened the box to looked at the powder for a long time. Then he said, "The explosive force in this pouder will hae mah canal open in noo time flat! Ah owe ye, kids!"

"Canal!?" We asked in unison as the short man moved towards the far off wall and placed the box down.

"Thar we go!" He exclaimed and started to light the box, "Nou we can bluiter the rock tae smithereens!" He ran towards us. "What are ye aw standin' aroon for? That pouder's set tae blaw! Unless ye plan on goin wi it, ye'd better gie oot whilst ye can!" We screamed and ran as fast as we could.

We felt a huge vibration like an earthquake and we all fell to the ground. Then Nerrick went to look at the wall again. He yelled from excitement and said, "Ah canna wait tae see what lies oot there ayunt that canal!" Then he ran off.

"Geez," I said, "The guy blew up a whole land bridge! Is he insane?"

"By what I've heard of, dwarves are always a little insane." Alishia told me.

"Ummm... everyone?" Griff said as he looked at the map, "The canal that Nerrick made, gives us access to the rest of the world!"

"What!?" We all exclaimed as we looked at the map. It was amazing, we could now continue with our adventure in new places. But little did we know that things were about to get complicated.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Gasp! I'm actually doing one of these? Yes. Yes I am. Anyways this chapter contains negative opinions on society and a brief insult to the Twilight saga, so, sorry if anyone feels offended... except if you disagree with my Twilight joke because the vampires in that suck. Otherwise, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

[Chapter 8]

[A Dream Come True…God Help Us All]

Nerrick had told us to take anything we could use from the mines, beings that we gave him the Nitro Powder. We found a green blade marked wyrmkiller, an ether, a potion, some mythril mail, 1600 gil, another cottage, a great helm, and a tent. On our way out, we heard a dwarf, named Smyth, explaining his problem.

"If only Ah could have some o the leegendary metal adamantite! Ah'd be habile tae make such a magical sword..."

So I went up to him, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry dude, we'll find the anamadite for you."

"Adamantite." He corrected. "Oh, and thank ye." He then gave us a book that had a picture of the metal we now had to find for Smyth the smith.

After weaving past mountains, marching through forests, and strolling around a lake without seeing a single monster, we boarded the ship and headed through the canal. After going through we ran into a whirlpool... just our luck. We tried to steer around but Donald suggested we go in.

"Why on earth would we do that!?" I asked.

"Because a storm sent us here, and maybe a whirlpool will take us back!" He yelled over the current. Before we finished our - ahem - conversation, Alishia grabbed me by the collar and pulled me overboard with her. I grabbed my hat before it fell off and I passed out underwater. When I woke up my hat was on my head. Alishia and I were in an underwater cavern with a statue of an octopus-like monster. Disgusting and rotted water gushed between it's tentacles. I woke up Alishia and we explored the cave.

"How did we get here?" I wondered aloud.

"Ummm..." A girl spoke from the water by my feet. I nearly jumped out of my skin. "I brought you here."

"Well, who are you?" I knelt beside her

"Y-you aren't going to hurt me?" I shook my head. She still seemed scared but she got out to reveal that she was a mermaid.

Then I had an idea. I pulled out my blue crystal and said, "I am Bram. I am one of the Warriors of Light." I looked at the gem. "I am the Black Mage of the Water."

"What about her?" the girl pointed at Alishia who had noticed us.

Alishia pulled out her green gem and said. "I am the Monk of the Wind, apparently."

"Okay, then maybe I can tell you a little about this place. This cavern is known as the Lifespring Grotto. Long ago, men and mermaids could live here together in peace."

I thought for a while. "Is it anything like the Earthgift Shrine?" She nodded. "Thank you ma'am." Then I remembered everyone on the ship. "We should get going now."

"Just head down that hall and you should be able to get out." So we thanked her and went on our way.

"Why did you drag me down?" I asked Alishia while we were walking.

"In case I ran into any water monsters, like those fishmen that Griff calls Sahagin."

"Okay then. So why a monk?"

"Why a black mage?"

"Because it makes sense. You, on the other hand, don't seem like a monk."

"Oh shut up."

Back on the boat, we told everyone about the mermaid we met. Then we headed west to Melmond. The same Melmond that is probably our only lead to meet a vampire.

* * *

We didn't expect much from our first description of Melmond...but we didn't expect ruins either. All of the houses were in disrepair, most of the people were boney and sick, and graves were everywhere. We asked what happened and a man told us, "The vampire attacked, destroying our church and leaving our city in shambles. Is there nothing we can do to stop the ruination of the earth?" He walked away sobbing.

"Everyone," I addressed my group, "You all wait at the inn. I've got some things to do. Except you, Alishia. I need your help." So we went around town, bought some Garlic, um... "borrowed" the silver cross of the ruined church and some holy water, made wooden stakes, and made torches. "That should be enough." I declared.

After staying at the inn for a night, we decided to go hunt monsters in the marshlands, so we could buy some spells and equipment. We also sold all of the equipment, except for our first weapons. I trained myself in using higher magic so I could learn new spells easier. When I entered the Black Magic shop, the man told me to try to memorize the spell... and I failed... so I couldn't learn the magic. The same happened with Jordan. So, we decided to go take on the vampire and save the town.

First, we headed west, then south across a land bridge and onto a triangular peninsula. We then we rested in a tent outside of the cave. Inside, we came to a four way intersection. First, we went north and found 1975 gil. Then we went west and found a loop filled with tough monsters. I almost died half of a million times, but I'll stop complaining. After that living Hell, we found a sign that said, "WARNING: Hall of Gigas ahead. Enter at own risk!" I punched the thing and shattered it, then we went to camp outside, mostly because I was tapped of magic and partially because my hand was bleeding emensely.

South was a dead end. East branched off into two paths. Alishia suggested I go right with Donald this time. I didn't argue. We explored the entire area and found some gil, and an antidote. When we hit the intersection again, Jordan and Alishia joined us and told us of a way down. I was nearly tapped again so I used the ether. At one of the two chests on the other path, there was an Earth Elemental, according to Griff, that attacked us. The chests contained a potion and some gil.

The second floor was a maze. In it, we found some gil, a leather shield, a Coral Sword (yes... a sword made of coral), and another tent. On the third floor, we found a sleeping bag set, a gold needle, and some gil... again. Seriously, who put all of that money in those chests? By the time we reached the vampire's room, I was nearly tapped of all magic, I only had one Fira in me.

"Hey, Jordan." I called.

"What is it?" She was obviously shocked I asked for her.

"When we go in there, you'll be the leader."

"What?" They were all shocked now.

"She can slay the undead with her Dia spells. I only have about one Fira in me. In fact, beings we're stopping the earth decay, Jordan should be leader until this matter is resolved." They all gaped at me.

"No." Jordan said. "I can't do it."

"Oh, don't give me this cliche' bit. Cause you know I'm just going to give a longwinded peptalk that will end up wasting our time in the end." I grinned. "Although, maybe Donald should give the peptalk, if anyone can talk you into this, it's him."

Jordan glared and punched me, "Fine, I'll do it."

"You'll do what?" I was having fun now.

"I'll lead you to save the Earth from rotting." We applauded her and walked in to fight our greatest dream and worst nightmare, the vampire... who's name we never learned. But before that, a couple of birds came around and turned Alishia and Donald to stone. So, goodbye gold needles.

The room we entered was practically empty. All we saw was a lonely chest in a corner and a stupid bat that flew around my head.

"Shoo! Shoo! Bad flying rat! Bad!" I chased it off. "Geez, I almost die and now a bat starts to annoy me."

Then we heard a voice. "All things in this vorld are destined to end in death..." Apparently the voice had a accent that we couldn't place. "The seal cannot be broken, and so the earth shall rot." Then the bat turned into the vampire. "You cannot alter destiny. Mere mortals cannot kill the undying!"

"Okay, dude." I interupted. "Alishia and I hauled our butts to get all of this vampire-slaying junk to see if you're a good one or not, and you show yourself in the form of a bat? Newsflash! YOU ARE NOT VLAD DRACULA! Only he is allowed to do that! Not only that but, you look like something out of a cheesy horror film! And... is that cape blue!? BLUE!? Who are you? A mixture of Batman, an elf, and an albino? God, I'd place my bottom dollar that you sparkle in the sun too! Seriously dude, you've done practically nothing and you already suck." And the vampire just stood there looking himself over. While he was distracted I gestured for everyone to attack. He was saying something about how he should have brought his maroon or black cape when he heard me getting ready for a spell. He lunged at me at a blinding speed. He got me good in the gut but Donald knocked him away before he did anything else. Then I cast my Fira spell. The vampire got away without serious injury but that all changed when Jordan hit him with a Diara. He disintegrated then. With a mighty roar.

After he was gone, I checked the chest and found a star ruby. I shouldn't have to explain what that is. I gave it to Jordan.

"You purged the evil (and disgraceful) vampire so you deserve the prize." She looked uneasy. "Something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh! No, nothing." She was obviously lying. Everyone was leaving so I talked to her quietly.

"Don't worry, you can tell me what's up."

"It's just... I don't think he was the cause of the trouble here. Something doesn't seem right." She was tracing the outside of the star ruby.

"Hey, let's just go back to Melmond for now. If something isn't right, we'll ask around and come back. Okay?" She nodded. "Good. Now let's get out of this pit."

On our way out, Alishia was turned to stone and we were out of Gold Needles, so we had to drag her out. Outside, we slept in a cottage. Poor Alishia was still trapped in stone. I looked around, I didn't notice any difference in the earth. So, we went to ask around Melmond, and boy they were MAD. They said that the earth was still decaying, they complained about the cross being stolen... and I, without my partner in the crime, got full blame when I returned it. That reminding me, I kidnapped Alishia, took half of the money, hijacked the boat, and sailed to Elfhiem to get a few gold needles. I ran into some monsters but quickly ran away with Alishia as a statue. When I freed her, I explained everything and apologized for kidnapping her and promised never to do it again. While we were there, we decided to stock up on supplies. We filled up on potions and got some tents. Then we went to Pravoka to get a bunch of Ethers.

When we got back to Melmond, it was dark so we stayed at the inn with the others. Cid was pretty mad, he almost made me swab the deck. During dinner, Jordan went outside.

"Hey," Donald started, "Has Jordan seemed weird to you lately?"

"She does seem pretty nervous." Alishia agreed. "Maybe it has something to do with the earth decay not letting up."

"Yeah, but we killed the vampire. So it should let up soon, but not immediately."

"Yeah so we shouldn't worry."

"Idiot." I joined. "Since when does a vampire drain the life of the earth?"

"Ever since this world got your blasted black magic."

"You got a problem my magic!?" I was louder than necessary so everyone inside was staring.

"You killed two people, Bram. That's enough reason."

"That has nothing to do with my magic. Those two morons tried to kill us first. Not to mention they were evil!" I stormed out before he said anything else. I didn't see Jordan outside, so when a guy passed I said, "Hey, can I ask you something?"

He answered, "Yes, for there is nothing I, the great genius , do not know!"

"Okay, I'll remember that. Anyway, did you see a girl in white and red robes pass by?"

"Yes, the fair maiden went towards the village's south entrance."

"Thanks Dr. Yuna." Then I ran off, hearing him correct me about his name. When I met Jordan at the entrance I scared her. "Don't worry, it's just me."

She began, "If you're here to-"

"-stop you, think otherwise, blah, blah, blah. Look, I'm here to help." She seemed to consider this and gave me the okay. "So what's the plan?"

"I heard about a wise man, named Sadda, on the southern tip of the continent. I figure he could tell us the real thing that's killing the earth if I give him the star ruby." Sounded like a plan. So we went and bought Firaga and Scourge, a spell that can kill all foes, rings for me, and Curaga, Diaga, and Life rings for Jordan. With our new spells, we went west to find Sadda.

We traveled quickly, knowing that everyone would soon follow. Monsters weren't a problem, as I disposed of most of them with my new magic. Unfortunately they now required spoken spells that took forever to say. After a bit of travel, we finally reached a cave marked as Giant's Cave on the map that I stole.

"At this point, I think I should have been a thief instead of a mage." I told Jordan. Inside, we met a giant who wouldn't let us through.

"Aw man. I guess this is useless then." Jordan said, holding the star ruby in her hand.

"You have star ruby!?" The giant bellowed. "Give me star ruby and I let you pass!" So we gave him the jewel and the creature... ate it... ew.

"Mmmm! Nothing tastier than rubies!" Then the giant retreated into the depths of the mountain. There were monster in there too, but they weren't special. We searched the cave and found a great axe, a mythril helm and... gil... AGAIN! We exited soon after and headed south to meet Sadda.

The old man lived in a cave. We found him leaning on his cane while sitting in a chair. When he saw us, he said, "So you are the ones who defeated the vampire, eh?" We nodded. The man shook his head, "But he was only a servant... The beast corrupting the Earth crystal lurks far deeper within the cavern."

"I knew it." Jordan had said proudly. "I knew something was wrong."

The man smiled and handed us his cane, "Here. Take this staff with you and use it behind the vampires chamber!" Jordan took the staff. "That is the Earth Rod. Use it well."

I bowed to the man, "Thank you, sir." Jordan bowed as well. The old man smiled. We left him then. I hoped to see him again.

Outside, we hurried north, to the giant's cave. After we exited the cave, we saw Donald, Alishia, Cid, and Griff looking for us in the marshes. So, we crawled through, trying to hide a bit more. While we passed them, I heard their conversation.

"I don't understand why Jordan would run off. Bram I understand, but Jordan?" Donald began.

"Maybe she really did think something was wrong." Alishia suggested.

"No," Donald was angry, "I bet he used some black magic to convince her."

"He doesn't know that kind of magic, even if he did, why would he just take Jordan?"

"She has the Earth Crystal, thing." Cid said. He sounded groggy and... wait, was he drunk?... Nah! Anyways, back to the conversation.

"So?" Donald asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Without her, the Earth Crystal shall never regain it's light and the earth will continue to rot." _How does _he_ know that?_ I wondered.

"So Bram was right about the vampire being the false 'true enemy'." Alishia confirmed.

"I don't care!" Donald yelled. "The vampire was the trouble here and we took care of it, so I say we find them and drag them back to the sh-" At that moment, I broke a twig and it made a huge snap. So much for the thief idea. "Who's there?"

I grabbed Jordan's arm and gave her a message. Then I stood and dragged her up to her feet. "It is I." I said as dramatic as possible. "I must say, I am very impressed that you discovered my true intentions so easily." I looked around. Cid seemed to be dead on his feet, Alishia didn't buy my act, Griff was preoccupied with Cid, and Donald was steaming mad. "Now I'm no dunce, I know I could never defeat you, so I'll make you a deal. I'll let go of Jordan, assuring you I have not and will not harm her, if you let me go freely."

Donald didn't think and said yes immediately. So I let go of Jordan and we ran south as fast as we could, just like I told her. If all went according to plan, we would lead everyone so far that turning back would be too late. We ran furiously, we didn't even slow when we reached the cave. We immediately ran to the next floor. If they had caught up, the maze on that floor slowed them down. When we reached the vampire's room, we finally rested, healed our wounds, and restored our magic. I looked around and found a door we didn't see at first. We waited until they came in to close it. We ran to the end of the corridor to a stone tablet in the ground. They ran up to us.

"Dead end, Bram!" Donald yelled. "Now tell us what you're doing."

"Why don't you ask Jordan? She's the leader, and this was her idea." I grinned.

"LIAR!!!" He yelled and his voice echoed in the cave. "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

"He's not lying, Donald." Jordan told him, "I actually didn't want him to come, but I knew he would anyways."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because the earth is crying out in pain and we're just ignoring it."

"Just like back home, only much more simple." I said and shrugged. Then, Jordan turned around and held up the earth staff and the stone tablet shone with a brilliant light and disappeared, revealing a staircase to the depths of the cave.

"So," I held that word for a long time. "Anyone want to say sorry?" I grinned at how Donald shifted uncomfortably.

"S-sorry." He started to sulk.

"Come one, dude," I threw him the item bag. "Lighten up." I looked around and noticed Cid and Griff were absent. Alishia told me they sent them back, because Cid was about to fall asleep.

"Whoops," I said.

"What?" Donald asked.

"It's night, so the caves will be dark." I looked down the entrance we made. It was pitch black.

"Anyone have a lantern or one of the torches?" I looked back to see Alishia pull out a torch.

"Whew." I quickly lit the torch with Fire and we descended into the depths. It was quiet so we talked between fights.

"So, how did you all find us?" I asked.

"Courteousy of Dr. Uno." Donald replied.

"It's Dr. Unne." Alishia told him.

"Right, the smart guy." We walked in silence until we came to a treasure room. There, we found a staff and a lot of gil. Not some, a LOT. Then we talked some more, between fights.

"Cid's going to make me swab the deck for sure." I said glumly.

"That's IF there's nothing down here that's killing the earth." Alishia corrected.

"Speaking of which," Donald joined in, "What do you think the thing is?"

"Probably a lich." I told him.

"A leech?"

"Lich. It's a king or a dark wizard who bound their intelligence to their corpse to give them a corrupted form of immortality. The spell needs to stay intact for it to work, so one might be sucking the life from the earth to fuel it's magic and stay immortal."

"That's sickening." Jordan said. I just shrugged. She looked at me nervously, "Could you do something like that?"

I thought for a while. "No. Dark Magic is beyond me."

"But you use Black Magic." Donald reminded.

"There's a difference. Dark Magic always comes with a steep price."

We reached another treasure room. Inside, we found a tent, a mythril shield, and....... some gil again. After a while, we fought a few monsters and Alishia got mad.

"I'm sick of these things!" She threw down her Nanchaku. "I can fight way better with my hands and feet!" And, as it turned out, she did. In fact, our fights began to go by much faster. I didn't know whether to be happy or scared. Speaking of which, I got REALLY scared when we descended further. If the last floor was scary, then this was terrifying. The walls seemed to be breathing down our necks, the light from the torch seemed to be swallowed by the dark, and our eyes never adjusted to the darkness.

After stumbling through there, Jordan found a door and we went in. Inside was a huge, pulsing, yellow crystal, that lit up the room, and a similar orb in front of it. We approached and Jordan said. "Hello! Is anyone here?"

"Who speaks to me?" Asked a dry and creepy voice that seemed to echo through our very bones.

"It is I, Jordan, White Mage of the Earth. Who is it that replies to us?" She obviously copied my, and Alishia's, line from our story of the underwater cave.

Then, the orb started to float and turned into a skeletal creature, wearing a purple cape. "I am he who feeds on the power of earth."

"We could have guessed that already." Donald told it.

It flinched and seemed to clear it's throat, "I will not be disturbed by mortal men."

"And women!" Corrected Jordan and Alishia.

It cleared it's throat again. "I am the lich..."

I cheered as loudly as possible, "WOOOO-YA! I so called that!"

"THAT'S IT! I'M THE FIEND OF EARTH! GET READY TO DIE, YOU BLASTED COCROACHES!" It lunged at us angrily.

"I summon the power Ifrit from the depths of hell, and command thee to burn all in my path to ash and soot." I said quickly and searing, white-hot flames shot from my fingers into the beast. Firaga so rocks!

Jordan cast Diaga saying, "I call the power of heaven to return the undead to their graves." Donald and Alishia attacked it throughout the fight. The lich tried putting me to sleep, but I avoided the spell easily. Then it lunged at me and put a huge gash in my chest. I cast Firaga again and it fell to the ground.

"I... can... not... die!" It grabbed Jordan. "I will... take you with me... if I have to!" Then, the lich started to drain the life from her. Donald cut off it's arm. It let out a long, agonizing scream. "I will never die!"

"SHUT UP!!!" Jordan yelled as she smashed the creature's skull. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" She continued to crush the skull. When the skull was nothing but dust, her legs gave out and she fell. Donald caught her.

"It must have been painful." I said, "Having the life drained out of you." She nodded. She must have felt the same pain as the earth. We all helped her to her feet and carried her to the crystal in the center of them room. She held her necklace up and the two stones started to shine. The two gems then shone so bright, that we were almost blinded by them. The Jordan passed out and Donald carried her.

"So," Donald began, "We just have to do this three more times around the world."

"Yeah." I answered. "We've really got our work cut out for us."

"Hey, guys!" Alishia called, "What do you make of this?" She was crouching next to a yellow glyph, of sorts, on the ground and reached for it.

"I wouldn't touch that. For all we know, that could be the spell that the lich was u-" But my warning was too late. Alishia barely touched it and disappeared in a flash of light. Panicking, Donald and I ran over. Donald tripped though, and he and Jordan disappeared too. "Dangit." I was worried and I paced around for a minute or two. "Should I touch it too?" I closed my eyes and stepped on it.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But, when I opened my eyes I felt like I was being pulled apart and smashed together like puddy. Then I appeared outside the cave with the others, and I didn't feel good. In fact, the experience made me get sick.

"Ew!" Alishia exclaimed my thoughts out loud.

"Sorry." I said, wiping my mouth. "I guess teleportation isn't my thing."

"I'll say. All I got was a small headache. What about you, Donald?" But he was asleep, next to Jordan. So, Alishia and I decided to camp there for the night.

Before I went to sleep, I cleaned out my mouth. In the middle of it, Jordan stepped out of her tent. "Thanks." She said.

"For what?" I asked with a mouth somewhat full of water.

"For getting me to the crystal."

"No need to thank me for that. It's our job to return the crystals to normal. So, if anyone needed to go do something important, I would help them in an instant."

"Still..." Her eyes snapped wide, "I KNOW!" I quieted her, so as to not disturb anyone. "If Cid makes you swab the deck, I'll help."

I thought that over. "No thanks." I said.

"What? How come?" Her eyes were wide.

"Because, he thinks it was my idea. No need for you to get in trouble."

"Then how about I help you getting to your crystal, no matter what? Just like you did for me."

"Now that's a good deal." I stuck out my hand and we shook on it, binding that promise until the oceans were saved.

When I went to sleep, I had the dream about the four shadows again. This time, however, one of the shadows disappeared and the earth glowed brightly. Good job, I thought to myself, now we have more time to save the world... or, at least, this world, because our world is screwed one way or another.


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note: Sigh... the filler chapter. Anyways, this chapter is in an extra dungeon that was placed in the remake. Sorry, it has no real relavence but I promise I'll make this chapter useful somehow... I hope. Back to the point, I hope you enjoy this really short chapter of failure.**

* * *

[Chapter 9]

[The Earthgift Shrine]

The last thing I ever expected was waking up in a desert. I had been walking through one for a few hours now. When we went back to Melmond, I suggested we check out the Earthgift Shrine. Yeah, I started to regret it at this point. We had entered without Cid, Griff, or the dwarf who was there. He told us that the place was filled with monsters, but we ignored him and entered. Inside, the door had slammed shut and the floor collapsed. Now we were separated, I was alone, I had no items except for my staff, and I was walking through a desert without any sense of direction because there wasn't even a sun. Yet, it was very hot, bright, and the sky was blue. After a while, I decided to stop. "DONALD!!!" I yelled and heard an echo from behind, "ALISHIA!!! JORDAN!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?" A while passed with no response, except for the echo. I grew worried. I decided to change direction. After a while more, I found a single tree in the middle of the desert. Don't ask why it was there, it just was. By that tree, was Alishia, and she was surrounded by giant red centipedes. I forgot whether centipedes are poisonous or not, but I wasn't about to take chances. So, I froze them.

I knelt next to Alishia and found that she was unconcious. I tried to wake her, "Hey, Alishia, are you okay?" I shook her awake.

"Five more minutes, I don't want to go to school today." She said, half asleep.

I sighed, "You're fine. Come on, Alishia, wake up."

She opened her eyes, screamed, and slapped me. I fell back and she asked, "What the heck do you think your doing?"

I sat up and rubbed my cheek. "Oww. I just saved you from giant centipedes, and possibly a poisonous death. The least you could do is say 'thanks for saving me' instead of slapping me." I pointed to my newly made statues.

"Sorry." She said while sitting up, "I didn't know what you were doing."

"Yeah, well, be careful when you slap someone. You're now stronger than most people around the world."

"I guess you're right." She said laughing. "So where are we? The last thing I remember is falling through the floor."

"I'm guessing we're in the Earthgift Shrine." I stood and helped her up, "We should get to looking for Donald and Jordan."

"Where should we start?" I looked around and pointed to a group of three trees that made an arrow.

"We should follow the trees and the way they point."

"Huh?!" She had a skepical look, "That doesn't make any sense."

"We're in a hot, dry, and bright desert, with no sun, trees nowhere near water, and to top it all off, we're underground. So, I think the ideas that make no sense will make sense, here." So, we followed the trees and found another group of trees that pointed to an oasis. There, we found Donald and Jordan sitting under a tree together. They looked like something out of a love movie. "Hey love-birds." I made them jump. Jordan was as red as possible and Donald nervously looked in a random direction, like he was interested in something in the baren wasteland. Near the oasis was a staircase that lead down into darkness. Regardless of how much sense that didn't make, I ran down them with everyone following.

The staircase spiraled downward into darkness. We kept going down until we exited in a small corridor. Turning around, the doorway was gone. The hall contained two chests. I opened one and found a vampire's fang. I snuck it out with out anyone noticing. I had plans for that fang and I intended to carry them out. I told everyone it was empty. They were disappointed, but even more when they opened the other one. The other chest contained a plain blue curtain. The curtain seemed useful at first, because I saw some magic around it, but I told everyone it was useless. They left it behind and I stole it as well. We continued down another staircase. The next floor contained more chests with a red fang, and two bottles labeled speed drink and protect drink. I smuggled the red fang as well. We also killed some wolves and I secretly stole a white fang from them. I was on a role here.

Later, we exited from a tree into a black forest. There, we saw a guard that seemed to be from an old movie. He seemed to be in grayscale. As we got closer, he stood to attention. He barred our path. When we got right next to him, he disolved into three black goblins.

"Warriors of Light." one said, "Your journey ends here, for you will never escap-"

Alishia punched through his chest, "Shut it! I've had it with this place and I've already had it with you!" She threw him off her arm, like he wayed nothing at all. Then, she moved towards another goblin who backed away from her.

Two other goblins started to back up as well, but I intercepted them by putting my hands on their shoulders. "Now where do you two think you're going?" They gulped and I gave them a sinister grin. "Your first mistake was attacking us, but your last was trying to run."

"No." the one to my left started to panic. "Please... let us go... we promise t-

"Goodbye." I electrocuted both of them into a crisp.

"A little overboard, don't you think?" Donald asked.

"Not at all." I replied, wiping my hands off. "I just used the spell that best fitted the situation."

"I was talking to Alishia." I looked over. It turns out she pummeled the goblin into oblivion. I looked around and found a dagger on one of the goblins. It was thin and straight with a pointed end. In fact, it looked more like a giant thumb-tack. I stole it as well.

We fought many guards throughout the woods. We also found a chest that had a cloak similar to the ones the elves wore. We gave it to Jordan and she happily wore it.

Soon, we arrived at a single grave among the black forest. We decided to rest there and take turns watching for monsters. On my shift, I started to combine the things I stole. I took out the goblin's knife and put holes through the fangs from side-to-side. Then, I rolled the curtain tight enough to fit through the holes and cut it short to finish my little project.

"What are you-?" I jumped and turned to see Alishia.

"Nothing!" I interupted and hid my project behind my back.

"Well, it's my shift, so I guess you can go rest now."

"Okay, I'll go do that." But, as I walked away, I noticed I dropped my project.

"What's this?" Alishia asked as she picked it up. "Is this the blue curtain we found?" She pulled at the blue cord I made it into.

"Uh... yeah." I confessed. "I kind of stole it, along with those fangs on it. I figured I could make them into something useful."

"So you made a necklace out of colored teeth and a window cover?"

"Well, the truth is, they're magic items, except for the vampire fang. The white and red fangs can cast attack magic spells. The curtain can cast something protective, don't know exactly. Lastly, the vampire's fang has a numbing poison, for paralysis. So, I made them into a necklace (albeit a bad one).....for you." She looked at me wierdly. "Just a way of me saying sorry about scaring you earlier."

"Okay, then." She said and put it on and I quickly explained what the fangs did in more depth. I didn't know what the curtain did at all so I told her it would be best to ask Jordan.

After our rest, we headed onwards to find another staircase. We went down them. At the bottom, we were in a room with four seperate rooms in each corner. Each room contained an altar, similar to the one the Earth Crystal was in, and a giant blue flame, suspended in the air in front of the altars.

"Okay guy, and girls. "Which room should we check out, completely, first?"

"That one!" They all said, pointing to a seperate room.

We just stood there for a while, without saying anything. "Thanks... a lot." I said sarcasticly. "Okay then, we'll just go with Alishia's choice."

"Why her's?" Donald asked.

"You've had really bad luck when you say or suggest something, Jordan has had enough pressure when making decisions, and it wouldn't solve anything if I chose the last room." Donald flinched and Jordan let out a sigh of relief. I hit them right on the money. So we entered the far-left room.

When we approached the flame, four eyes appeared in it. The eyes danced around each other in a way to suggest two beings were in the flame. But then the creature spoke and said, "In me are all things great and small extinguished." Two large, yellow-scaled legs and two similar, but smaller, arms appeared. Also, a body, two wings, and a tail started to form. "Die now, Warriors of Light!" It yelled as two dragon heads lunged from the flames. I tried to prepare a spell but it was too late, the dragon had caught my arms with it's two massive jaws. I thought someone would be able to get me out of the mess, but it was also too late for that. The dragon bit down and tore off my arms before anything else happened. I dropped to the floor, half-dead and beyond any healing.

Alishia then ran forward and attacked the monster. She punched it and her fist started to bleed. The beast then swatted her away with it's tail. She hit against the wall with an earpiercing snap as she hit it, and she didn't get back up. Then, Donald attacked. He survived a lot a scratches and deep cuts from the dragon but his sword just glanced off it's scales. Soon he collapsed in a bloody heap. I dreaded what the dragon might do to Jordan. Sort-of-luckily, she was only smashed by the creature's massive foot.

Then the thing stalked around me. "What should I do now?" One head said to the other. "Maybe I should eat them, starting with this one. It would be a waste if he lost all of his blood."

I rolled my eyes. "Can you just get this over with?" I painfully asked.

It stared at me with all four eyes. "Very well, any last words?"

I thought for a second. "Yeah." I coughed, "You can go straight to hell."

The two heads bared their teeth, and then everything went black.


	10. Chapter 10

[Chapter 10]

[Walking on Magma]

"Hey! Wake up already!" I got kicked out of bed by Alishia. "We've got to get going."

I yawned and sat up, "Okay... where are we exactly?"

She sighed. "We're in Cornelia's inn. Remember?" She knocked on my head.

"Oh yeah, I remember now." After the incident at the Earthgift Shrine, we woke up in the cave before it. We were all sore and close to death, even though we supposedly already died. Cid and the dwarf had carried us to Cornelia. Alishia and I knew it wasn't a dream because Alishia still had the necklace I made for her. That was all I could remember before passing out again.

"So, how are you feeling?" She asked.

"Well, my arms are really sore and stiff." I moved them around painfully.

"Yeah it kind of hurts to breath for me." Her lungs were probably pierced by bones during the battle, so it was no wonder.

"How are Donald and Jordan?"

"Well, Donald still can't move and Jordan is in shock."

"So I take we have some time to kill before we leave." She nodded. "Figures. Where are Cid and Griff."

"Well..." She looked off to the side.

"Ah, dangit!" I ran outside. When I got there, Cid was nowhere to be found. I checked the castle, the whole town, the surrounding area, and found nothing. However, the ship remained in the port. I checked it and found Cid sitting on the deck with Griff on his shoulder. In his hand was a weird game with fifteen sliding panels and sixteen spaces. He was trying to arrange the panels in a certain order.

"Stupid piece of junk!" He threw it and hit me in the face.

"Ow! Watch it!" I caught the game.

"Sorry kid, just trying to... well..."

"Figure out if you're going to leave us behind?" I threw the game overboard, it seemed pretty useless to me.

"Sorry, it was my idea." Griff said. "You see, we haven't been all that helpful so we were deciding on leaving."

I stared at them and sighed. "How about this? If we find another ship, you can go on your merry way to the ends of this dying world with this ship and anyone you want to take, besides us."

"That'd be great, but you kids are our only chance to get back home... and why would I bring YOU FOUR aboard MY SHIP?" Cid grinned.

"Didn't stop you from bringing us aboard the first time." Cid stopped grinning and sighed. "Look, Cid, I'll find a way to get you all back. No matter what it takes."

He blinked, "It sounds like you're thinking about staying."

"Yeah. I might stay." I thought for a while and shook my head. "Best not to think about that now. I'll deal with it when the time comes." I walked away.

I met up with Donald outside of the inn. He was leaning on his great axe for support. "Donald!" Jordan called after him, apparently not in shock anymore. "Get back inside now. You need to rest more."

"No. I'm fine." He told her. "I can't just lie here while the world is coming to an end. We need to find the crystals."

"Where do you suppose we look?" Alishia interupted.

I decided to join as well. "First, we should look for a volcano to find the Fire Crystal."

"Where did you get that idea?" Asked Jordan.

"We found the Earth Crystal deep underground. So the Fire Crystal would be in a place surrounded by intense heat."  
"A volcano!" Exclaimed Donald.

"Really? It's a wonder you figured that out, beings I told you that five seconds ago!" I sigh. "Well, what do you say about looking at the wonderful map that Griff has to find this Hell on earth?"

"Cut the speach and let's go." Alishia said walking off.

On the ship we asked Griff to find the nearest volcano. He found one south of Pravoka. So Cid sailed us to a port to the east of it.

"Any towns on the way to the mountain?" I aksed.

"Cresent Lake is on the way there." Cid answered. "There's also a cave to the north of the mountain, and a small desert to the south."

"And you know this how?" Donald asked.

"You kids were out for a while. I learned a few things about this world." He pulled into port. "Here's where we get off." He walked onto land.

We were walking through a huge forest for a few hours until we found a lake with an island in the center. The island had a town in the middle. It seemed like a peaceful place, and it was. When we entered the town, everybody seemed fine without a care in the world. It was a small town with a few shops, an inn, and a church. It was getting late so we stayed at the inn.

The next day, we decided to visit the shops. First we got Donald some Mythril Gloves and a sword of the same kind. Then, Jordan learned an upgraded protect spell that works on everyone and a spell that makes us blend into the area. I learned Thundaga and bought a ring with a sythe on it. We also stocked up on Hi-potions and other items.

Later, I decided to actually look around a village. Behind the weapons shop, I saw a guy sleeping next to some graves. I tried waking him up, but he just kept snoring. I met a lady in the middle of town too. She looked kind of depressed so I decided to talk to her.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said, "My husband is always traveling, and the little time he IS home, he sleeps all day! I think he needs to get his priorities straight." Then she grunted and walked off.

After that, I saw Donald walking around. "Hey, dude." I greeted him. "What's up?"

"Nothing." He replied in a depressed voice. "I just feel uneasy, so I decided to walk around."

"Mind if I join you?"

"Yes. I do mind."

"Okay then, I'll join you anyways." I dragged him along. "Let's try the woods next to the Magic shop." He was yelling at me as I dragged him but I ignored him and took him into the woods. Soon, we were in a clearing. In the clearing stood twelve dwarves in a circle. "Great." I muttered, "More dwarf gibberish talking to translate."

The first one to speak was the one to the left of the clearing entrance. Then they all spoke in a clockwise order. This is how it went and my thoughts on what they said:

First: "Twelve sages are we, guided to this land by star and prophecy." (Okay.)

Second: "Four Great Crystals exist in this world. The light that once shone within them is now lost. The four Fiends of Chaos block the power of the Crystals, claiming it as their own." (We know.)

Third: "Fire, earth, water and wind... These are the four forces that compose our world." (...We know.)

Fourth: "The source of the four forces are the altars scattered throughout the world. Defeat the Fiends that have taken root there and lift up the crystal you carry to the altar. The crystal should regain it's brilliance." (WE KNOW!)

Fifth: "The four Fiends plot to rule the world both past and present. The Fiend of wind appeared four hundred years ago, followed two hundred years later by the Fiend of Water. Together they laid waste to the civilization in the north." (...That we DIDN'T know.)

Sixth: "The Fiend of Earth rots the land..." (Yes, that is ALL he said. What uslessness.)

Seventh: "Where the Fiend of Fire passes, all is cast into flame..." (See? Even this guy was more useful.)

Eighth: "When all four Crystals shine once more, return here. All will be revealed..." (Ooooh, creepy.)

Ninth: "Bring the light of the four Crystals to us! Warriors of Light, only you can do this!" (No pressure what-so-ever.)

Tenth: "The volcano Mount Gulg rises to the west of this town. The Fiend of Fire long slept within its passages, but she has awoken two hundred years before her time. Vanquish her before the world is consumed in flame!" (THANK YOU!)

Eleventh: "Well done, Warriors of Light. You have defeated the Fiend of Earth and restored the Crystals light. Sadly, this has drawn the notice of the Fiend of Fire, who was not to have stirred for another two hundred years. Take this canoe, and go face the Fiend in Mount Gulg!" (What? WE caused the thing to wake up? Well, that sucks.)

Then the last dwarf said to us, "I am Lukahn. I see...a cycle of wrath... A dim light...guided by destiny... That which our entire future revolves..." Yeah... he didn't help much. So I had to hold on to the canoe as well as the lute, crown, and mystic key. So we went back to the inn to round up the girls, Cid, and Griff and we set out to Mount Gulg. Fighting monsters along the river while trying to figure out how to steer the canoe properly. It was extremely hard.

Soon we came to the foot of a huge volcano that spewed lava at a steady and constant rate. As we looked up at the towering mass of firey doom, Cid said to us, "Screw that. You wouldn't catch me dead going there." Griff agreed. So we decided to leave them there.

Inside, we came to our first obstacle....... the frickin magma inside! "Any ideas on how we get through this guys?" I asked scratching the back of my head.

"Donald," Jordan began, "You're the leader this time. Any ideas?

"I've got one." He said skeptically. "But it's very painful." Before we could ask, he started RUNNING on the magma.

"What the-!?" Jordan, Alishia, and I asked in unison and amazment. Then we all ran too and let me tell you, IT HURT! I promised myself to NEVER walk on hot coals under any circumstances.

"Okay, how, for the love of the Crystals was that possible!?" I asked Donald very agitated.

"We're in a different world so the laws of our universe don't count sometimes?" He answered.

"It sounds like a bad excuse to me." Replied Alishia.

"Who cares?" Said Jordan. "As long as it works."

Just then two Sphinxes ambushed us. Now, for those of you who don't know, a Sphinx is a creature with the head of a women, the body of a cat, and wings. They separated us. Donald and Alishia were forced back by one and the other had pinned down Jordan. Now being non-athletic I couldn't kill it with my strength so I had to use magic, but all of it was wide-ranged or too weak. So, I had to try out my ring. And out of nowhere, I started to chant a spell too.

"I call upon the powers of the underworld to do my bidding. Bring forth the denizen of eternal slumber and darkness. I summon you... DEATH!"

Then a skeletal form appeared in front of me knealing. It held a sythe and "What do you desire to slay, master?" It aksed in a bone-chilling (pardon the pun) whisper.

"Reap the Sphinx's soul!" I commanded pointing at the monster getting ready to kill attack Jordan.

"I shall do my best, master. But I can't guarentee I will accomplish this task." Then Death turned around and the creature's soul appeared in front of it. It was an exact replica of the creature, but translucent. "Nighty-night kitty." Death chuckled dryly and cut through the soul with it's sythe and both disappeared. I watched as the Sphinx stood above Jordan.... and collapsed.

I ran over to aid her by rolling the Sphinx off. "You okay?" I asked. She nodded shakily as Donald and Alishia ran over.

"What just happened?" Donald asked. "That thing just dropped down dead."

"I killed it." I answered, "With a some help." I added, holding up my Death ring for them to see. They just stared at me. "You... didn't see it?"

"See what?" Alishia asked. "You just started talking to yourself and the Sphinx died."

"Ah, who cares?" Donald said. "It's not important anyways." On that note we, painfully, marched on into the volcano. We found the stairs on the opposite side of the floor and went down. There, we found a long hallway filled with magma and a door next to the stairs. So we had to choose between magma or the monsters behind the door... we chose monsters. Inside was a maze filled with treasure chests. We fought many of them and got a Mythril helm, tons of gil (again), a great sword, mythril gloves, a mythril shield, a mythril axe, a phoenix down, a mythril helm, an antidote, a tent, and a hi-potion. Yeah, there was an area with most of the treasure bunched up.

It was then we found a door to the hall outside. We still had a bit to go, but we made it and went down stairs. On the third basement floor, the floor was randomly separated by gaps of magma. After getting lost twice, we ran down a snaking hallway and got burned a lot at random times. Soon, we found the next flight of stairs. The next floor was a nightmare. There was practically nothing BUT magma and the only safe ground was near the natural pillars of the floor. Also, wouldn't you know it, we had to go UP the next flight of stairs. The floor after that was a maze of magma. We got lost, went in circles, wound up back at the staircase, and soon found the way to continue.

"I'm getting real sick of this." I gasped. We were all tired and panting. "Not only are we out of breath, but it's hard to breath in here AND we'll be dehydrated soon."

"I'm more worried about burning to death." Said Alishia.

"I think we should rest." Offered Jordan. "Don't you think?" The question was directed at Donald.

"Fine." He said. He was really tired but not as much as us because he had the highest endurance. He pointed to a room next to the stairs. "We'll go in there." There were two chests inside and no magma (hooray!). One chest had a gold needle and the other had... gil again (Booo!).

"Ugh... why do these things almost always have gil?" I asked while we rested. I was sitting next to the wall, Donald was by the door, and the girls were in the middle of the room.

"What's your problem with some extra gil?" Alishia asked.

"Nothing. It's just some useful items would be nice."

"Well Donald got that Axe from earlier." Jordan tried to cheer me up.

"I'm not using it." Donald replied. "Those things are harder to hit with." He grabbed his sword and started to walk out of the room. "You all ready?"

"Yeah" I stood up. "Might as well go kill this whatever it is." I thought for a second. "What is this thing again?" Everyone just shrugged. "Huh. Okay. So we're in the dark this time. Figuratively, of course." I gestured to the magma outside the room.

The next room we found had..... yes, more gil. Another had an antidote, a sword that froze everything it touched (geez), a glowing hot sheild (GEEZ!), and..... gil! I quietly gave the gil a "screw you." Donald took the sword and shield. Another room had only a little gil, and by little I mean 1, so I yelled, "SCREW YOU!!!"

The next room had a regular staff and, you guessed it, GIL!!! Luckily, the stairs were past that. The next floor branched into 8, count 'em, EIGHT paths. We went north first and found a dead end. Then we went south and found a long path with a bunch of turns and ended up at another dead end. Then we went south-west. There we found a door. It was really hot and we knew, just knew, that the Fiend was behind THIS door. So we healed up before entering.

The room was the same as the altar for the Earth Crystal except with a red crystal and orb. Unlike Jordan, Donald just blurted out, "I know you're there, freak! So come on out already!"

Then we heard a woman speak, "So you are the ones who defeated the Fiend of Earth and roused Marilith from her slumber." Then a red serpent-woman appeared. She had yellow hair, that flew around from the volcanic air, and six arms, each holding a unique sword.

"So what if we are?" Challenged Donald.

She glared at him. "The power of the flame is mine and mine alone! Those who should oppose me shall burn in hellfire!"

Donald raised his sword and pointed it at her. "I beg to differ you insane freak!" He then muttered something to us. "Stay out of this everyone." We got out of the way. He grinned. "She's mine." He then ran towards her. "Take this!!!"

He jumped swung his sword, only to be blocked by a sword in mid-air. He was then flung across the room. He landed perfectly, Marilith then lunged at him and barraged him with sword strikes. Donald parried them but got cut up a bit. He swung again and cut off one of her hands. She shrieked in pain. "You impudent worm! You'll pay dearly for that." She threatened.

Donald wasted no time in striking again. "You're the only worm here lady!" He was blocked by another sword. Marilith then tried stabbing from all around Donald. He jumped back just in time to avoid her attack. But he fell and landed on his back. Marilith then pinned him down with her swords. I was about to help him but Donald quickly broke free and cut off another hand. Marilith tried barraging him again but he knocked her blades back with his own. She surrounded him with her arms but he was able to block all sides. As he turned to block an attack from behind, she tried stabbing him from he back. He quickly stepped to the side, turned around and stabbed her. She then dropped all of her swords and stared down at Donald as she started to freeze. "Go to hell." Donald muttered and he removed his blade. As soon as he did so, Marilith crumbled into frozen dust that melted and evaporated before it hit the ground.

Donald appraoched the Crystal then and held up his necklace. The Crystal regained it's glow and an earthquake began. "Glad that's over with." He sighed.

"This is bad." I said. "We have to get out before the volcano erupts!"

Donald looked around. "Anyone up for teleportation?" He pointed to a red glyph.

"Not again." I complained, but I stepped on it regardless. We all got out safely.

* * *

**Author's Note: "Hey. What's the big idea? Why does Donald get an epic fight scene but Jordan didn't?" You may be asking. Well, let me put like this. Imagine a White Mage from ANY game slaying a giant monster on her own... see? It just doesn't work. **

**[Apologies to Jordan (if you're reading this) and all White Mage fans]**


	11. Chapter 11

[Chapter 11]

[Out of the Frying Pan and into the Freezer]

When outside of Mount Gulg, I didn't get sick this time. Instead Cid hit me on the head with his cane. "You idiots!" He bellowed "What in the hell did you do?" He pointed to the Volcano. Mount Gulg was erupting.

"All we did was destroy an ancient monster that slept in it for a few hundred years." Donald answered him.

"She died in a frozen glory of sheer uglyness." I took off my hat and we had a VERY brief moment of silence. In fact, I don't think it actually existed. "Well, let's go before the lava catches up to us." I walked off. Everyone followed soon enough. "Hey Donald." I started as we got in the canoe. He looked over at me. "Where did you learn to fight like that? I've never seen do anything so cool before."

He shrugged. "I guess I got a lot of practice on monsters."

"Either that or you're 'destined to be the great hero of this land' or some other cliche' crap." I yawned. Everyone followed soon after. We rowed on for a while in silence. Soon a giant plant monster, some piranhas, and crocodiles got ready attack us. They looked really threatening, but I just killed them with thundaga before they did anything. "Wow, these guys suck. Are there _any_ difficult things to kill?"

"Are you complaining about this being too easy?" Alishia asked.

"No, the only thing I complain about is all of this stupid gil." I held up our gigantic bag of money. "I would suggest trading the money in, but I highly doubt they make ten-thousand gil coins."

Soon, we found ourselves back at Crescent Lake so we resupplied and stayed at the inn. There we heard some people talking about a levitation stone or something. We couldn't really tell, they were drunk. We thought it could be useful, so we decided to ask around town. I came across the sleeping guy from before, this time he was awake. I decided to ask about that stone from earlier. "I've been after the levistone for ten years..." He nodded off to sleep. I woke him back up. "The cave to the north looks promising, but I can't go..." He went back to sleep and I splashed water in his face. "I'd never hear the end of it from my wife." He went back to sleep and I gave up to tell everyone about it.

* * *

I slipped and fell on my face for what seemed like the twelth time. "Geez, you have no balance." Donald said as he slid around me.

"Give me a break, I never learned to skate." Everyone else could stay up fine.

"Here, let me help you." Donald reached down to help me up. But as I was standing up, Alishia bumped into me and I fell again. Donald just laughed and Jordan was just catching up.

"Don't worry." Jordan said. "This is a very long hall. You should get used to moving soon."

It turns out she was right, although I had a few more problems along the way. One was stopping, I ran into everything, another was fighting, it was akward trying to cast spells, and the last was me slipping occasionally. In fact, I slipped and fell all the way to the second floor. When everyone caught up all I said was, "Donald... don't say _anything_. In fact, never speak of this again or you will find it very hard to sleep at night."

He tried his best not to laugh. "So which way should we go?" There were two paths in a nintey-degree angle.

"Let me see something first." A grabbed a coin from the huge bag of gil and placed it on the ground. I then handed Alishia my staff. "Please hit this coin in either direction."

"Now isn't the time for hockey." She said but I just told her to do it. She hit it so hard the coin flew down the hall, bounced around the corner and came from the other path. I picked up the coin and flipped it. The blank side faced up so we chose the path the coin came from. The floor was just a big circle with nothing on it so we went through fast. After slowly decending down we came to cramped room with another staircase... this one leading back up. Reluctantly, we accended the slippery stairs.

Suprisingly, the next area actually had something on it. There was a room containing two chests and a floating rock, we immediatly took notice of the cracks in the floor and avoided them for the time. Inside one of the chests were some regular clothes. "It's not gil, but it's still annoying." I said. In the other was a firey blade that we gave to Donald. It was weak, but it would obviously be useful in here. Next was the matter of the floating stone. It was surrounded by three sets of cracks, and the only open spot was surrounded by more sets of cracks. Alishia voluntered to step forward because she was the smallest. Stepping on the cracks caused her to fall down. Jordan leapt to save her first, followed by Donald, then me. Unfortunatley, the ice made it impossible to lift anyone up.

The bottom floor was a maze with shining spikes of ice covering some segments of the ground. It was impossible to get by without painfully crossing them. we decided to go right first. Past the spikes was a room with two chests guarded by a white dragon. Alishia would have hugged it but it attacked us. It was obvious how to kill it so we made quick work of it. Inside the chests were ice armor and mythril gloves. We gave the armor to Donald.

After painfully crossing more spikes, we found a room with six treasure chests. I prayed that none had any gil. But of course that wasn't the case. In fact, there was nothing but gil. Just gil, gil, and more gil. "I'm sick of all this gil!" I yelled. The yell echoed throughout the cave. So, after getting lost a few times, akwardly fighting monsters, and turning our feet into shredded pulps, we finally found the way up.

On the next floor, we found a chest with an ether. "Anyone getting bored already?" I asked as I gave the ether to Jordan.

"Oh come on." Alishia said. "What's your problem lately?" We walked out of the room and went around the corner.

"Nothing, I just hate ice areas in adventures. Simple as that." I opened a door and we walked into a room containing a chest with ten-thousand gil. I cursed under my breath.

"Care to explain why you hate them?" Donald asked as we entered a new room that contained three chests.

"They're boring, dreary, and all around pointless." I opened the chests to find more gil, a sleeping bag set, and and ice shield. "I mean, I've barely seen or read about any entertaining ice areas." I accidentally slid on a crack in the floor with a crunch. "Oh, screw you." I insulted it and fell down, dragging everyone with me.

When I woke up, I found the levistone right in my face. "Hey guys," I woke them up. "Look what I found!" They just stared at me with their eyes wide open. "What is it now?" I turned around to see a giant eye staring in my face. "Why is it I have terrible luck?" It roared at me in response. "Oh don't you pull that crap with me! I have had the worst day today, and you are not making it any better! So, prepare to die, you son of a-!" I didn't finish because it just ran away crying. "Wimp! I bet I could have killed you easily anyways!" I shook my head, picked the levistone out of the air, and started on my way out. Everyone followed a bit farther behind than usual.

* * *

Two days later, we got back to Crescent Lake. There we asked around about what to do with the levistone. No one helped at all. So, we decided to look at the map and choose a place to explore. "These continents seem a good place to start." Donald pointed at the two northern landmasses. The northeastern one kind of looked like a pterodactyl.

"No can do." A man told us. "There are no ports on those continents. Only way to get there is if you can somehow fly."

"How are we going to do that?" Alishia asked. "I know, why don't we get a giant yellow bird and ride them all the way there?" She was really mad at being stuck like we were.

"Well, I heard about something in the desert down south. Maybe you should try there."

We did just as he said and headed for the desert. As we started to enter, it became really hard to hold onto the levistone. "Help me with this guys." All five of us, and technically Griff, tried to hold the thing down. As we did so, a great earthquake shook us and we witnessed a giant ship rise on the edge of the desert. It went higher and higher into the air as many propellers allowed it to fly. The propellers then stopped suddenly and the vessel landed sloppily into the sand. The levistone then flew from our grasp and towards the ship. We started walking towards it but Cid and Griff stayed behind.

Jordan stopped and turned around. "Aren't you two coming?" Everyone but me stopped.

"No their not." I continued walking. "Cid is captain of that ship, not this one. Isn't that right?" Cid stands quietly for a second. He then nods and walks away. Griff wasn't far behind. "Hey! Cid." He turns back around. "You better not die on your own out there." Cid walked away, for good that time.

* * *

**Author's Note: Huh, that was shorter than I thought it would be... Holy geez! This is the shortest thing I've ever written/typed in my entire life. So to make up for it, here's a quick little "Fun Fact": The title was taken from a line in FF10 when Tidus gets chased into the cave by a giant fish. But unlike that moronic crybaby, the context I use it in actually makes more sense. And on that note, rate, review, tell me what sucks, and I will make the next chapters even better.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: WARNING: This chapter contains an unbelievable amount of cheesiness. That is all.**

* * *

[Chapter 12]

[Citidel of Trials]

I clung to the guard rails of the airship, and my hat, for dear life as Alishia sailed through the skies while humming a song. Jordan and Alishia were below deck, running "maintenance." But the ship was in perfect condition. I think they were too chicken to stay above deck. I don't blame them.

"Hey, Bram!" Alishia yelled over the wind. "Do you know where we are?"

"I don't know, just let me check the map we lost when you almost hit a mountain!" I yell back.

"Can't you make another one?" She laughed

"NO! I am _not_ letting go of this rail until you stop!" I catch my hat from almost flying away.

"Oh, alright! I think I see an island!" So she drops down slowly to a small island with a forest. The ship extended four long landing poles and we slowly decended into a small clearing. "Well, how was I?" She grins wildly.

"Next time..." I pant. "Donald drives."

* * *

"Hellooooooo!" I yelled into the underground cave that we found at the edge of a forest. "Is anyone home?" First there was only my echo. Then only silence. Then a loud, mighty roar shook the ground beneath us and we fell inside.

"**WHO DARES TRESSPASS ON OUR SACRED LAND? ENTER FOOLS, AND I SHALL JUDGE YOU!**" A deep booming voice echoed in our ears and we reluctantly entered the cave. After entering, we found a long, and I mean LONG tunnel that led further underground. We descended deeper and deeper until we found a stone staircase and descended further.

At the foot of the stairs we found ourselves facing a pair of giant iron doors that a whale could fit through. It took all four of us to open them. The door opened into what seemed to be another long hall. At th end we could see a man wearing a dark leathery cloak. "**APPROACH ME!**"The man said and we started forward.

As we moved, the hall widened and we all felt like ants. The biggest surprise was that there were actually three figures at the end of the hall. Getting even closer, we saw that the figures were not people... but dragons. Alishia ran up to the first one on the right and gave it a big hug. It took all of us, including the other dragon to get her off. "**AHEM.**" The voice caught our attention and we stared at the great imposing force that laid before us. A dragon that stood taller than castle Cornelia stared long and hard at us. Despite my new fear of dragons from our last encounter, I marveled at the magnificent being and kneeled before it. Everyone promptly followed.

"**DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?**"The dragon asked.

I formally answered, "Such a magnificent and tremendous force as yourself could only be Bahamut, the Dragon King."

"Suck up." Donald slandered next to me.

"You are in the chamber of Bahamut, the Dragon King!" The dragon to our left said. "Mind your tongue, _human_." He spat out the last word. Donald scowled at the ground. I simply grinned.

"**NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHO I AM, PLEASE PRESENT YOURSELVES.**" Bahamut lowered his head to the ground and glared at us with peirceing red eyes.

"We are the Warriors of Light, your majesty. Allow me to add that we mean you know harm and are simply lost do to..." I look at Alishia then back at Bahamut, "...navigational problems."

"**SUCH AS?**"

"We are not from this world, none of us know how to drive an airship, the youngest of our group was the one driving, and on top of everything, we lost our map." I gave another look at Alishia who was almost drooling over Bahamut.

"Would that happen to be this one?" The dragon on our right held up a yellowed piece of paper. "I picked this up while hunting for food. Doesn't look very tasty though so I thought I'd add it to our treasure trove. I guess you can have it though." He flicked the parchment to me. I caught it and found out it really was the map.

"**AHEM. ANYWAYS, I AM THE DRAGON KING, BAHAMUT. I CONFER HONOR UPON THOSE WHOSE STRENGTH AND COURAGE ARE TRUE. YOU FOUR YOUNG WARRIORS HAVE TRESSPASSED ON OUR SACRED LAND WHEN OUR SPECIES HAVE LONG SINCE SEPARATED. RETURN TO ME WITH A TOKEN OF YOUR COURAGE. THEN MAYBE I SHALL SPARE YOUR LIVES.**"

"Lord Bahamut!" The spiteful dragon on the left objected. "Surely your majesty is not implying that these _humans_ journey through the Citidel of Trials."

"**I AM DOING JUST THAT. IF THESE WARRIORS TRULY ARE THE WARRIORS OF LIGHT, THEN SURELY THIS SHALL BE AN EASY TASK. OTHERWISE THEY ARE NOT FIT TO SAVE THIS WORLD." **As he says that a small drop of nervous sweat runs down the side of my face.

* * *

"Land there, on the edge of that peninsula!" Our dragon escort told us. Luckily for us it was the nice one who returned our map.

"Roger!" Alishia yelled as she turned to land. It was true that she was god-awful at driving the airship, but none of us were as good as her. It's actually very difficult. I sucked even worse after reading the directions. Anyways, Alishia landed perfectly on the designated peninsula and we all disembarked.

The Citidel we were told about was about a mile away surrounded by forests and marshlands, which the airship could not land in, so we had to make a huge U-turn to it. Bahamut had given us three days to make our way through the Citidel and return with our token of courage, otherwise, we would be eaten. So we made no delay in rushing for the building.

The trip there went on as usual: Donald hacks and slashes, Alishia punches like crazy, Jordan keeps us (mostly me) alive, and I pwn everything with my spells.

It took us until sunset to reach the castle, so we decided to camp for the night. It was that night that I decided to speak my mind about that world at dinner. "Hey guys." I started. Everyone looked up from there stew to listen. I look at each of them nervously. "I... kind of don't want to go home anymore." Everyone's eyes shot open and Alishia almost chokes trying to say something.

"Are you insane?" She asks. "First you drag us into this mess and now you want us to stay?"

"Not you all!" I say hastily. "I mean, you can stay if you want, I just... don't..." I stare at the fire for a minute, collecting my thoughts. "Don't worry." I tell them. "I'll find a way back for you guys. But I'm not going with you. I'll stay here and become the greatest mage you've ever seen. I'll become a legend that even you'll hear." I grin and laugh but all their faces are of despair. "Come on guys. You won't miss me. I actually think it would be better if I stayed."

"What about your family?" Donald asks me. I thought of everyone at home, waiting for me to come home. Did they even know I was missing? I didn't know anymore. I didn't know anything.

"I'm going to bed." I dodge the question and head for my tent. "Oh, and guys." They all look at me. "I meant what I said." I look back at them. "I'm going to get you back home, even if it kills me."

* * *

I was the first to wake up the next day. I silently apologized to everyone and headed inside the large building. I walked along a hall of pillars that opened into a giant ring. Looking around, the Citidel was ancient, but not ruined. It was probably the oldest building in the entire world.

"You come bearing the crown, I see." I hear a voice say. Turning around I see an old man. I pull out the crown from Marsh Cave and he nods. "Your fortitude connot be questioned, indeed not..." The old man stares up into my eyes. "Very well, I shall grant you the right to undergo the trials. Go now. Sit upon the throne. Your courage will be put to the test. If true courage dwells within you, you will find proof of it here." The old man looks behind me and smiles. "I see your friends have arrived. You will need them if you wish to succeed."

I look behind me and see Jordan, Donald, and Alishia enter the chamber. "Thanks for leaving us, Bram." Jordan said as they came up to me.

"Don't worry I was just talking with someone." I told her.

"Talking with who?"

"I was just talking to mister... what was your-?" I turned around to find the old man gone.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." I looked around the room, then down at the crown in my hands. I absent mindedly traced the intricate patterns on it and walked deeper into the castle. Everyone followed and tried to get my attention, but I couldn't hear them. Just the old man's speech rang in my head. One line in particular. _Sit upon the throne._ I entered a small room with just enough room for all of us and sat on the elaborate chair in the middle. I then placed the crown on my head and I felt myself vanish.

* * *

I woke up sitting against a wall of a pitch-black room. I used magic to light up the room. Eveyone else was sitting against the walls as well. "Guys." I shook them awake. "What happened?"

Donald sleepily rubbed his eyes. "You sat down put on the crown and now we're here. That's it."

"Hey, I found a door." Jordan said as she stepped out into another room that was lit by a pillar of light. "What do you think this is?" She asked, reaching for it.

"Stop!" Donald reached for her but trip and fell into the light. He disappeared in a flash.

"Donald!" Jordan yelled after him. I stopped her from rushing forward.

"I'm alright!" We heard his voice from the northern wall. Jordan relaxed. "I'm just lost! I can see fine though! I'm going on ahead!" And with that, we stepped into the light after him. We quickly discovered we were in a maze of portals. When we reached two portals, we split up. Soon we were all separated and lost, keeping in contact by yelling over the walls.

"Hey guys!" I yell to them. "Any of you feel this is a little too easy?" I asked walking through a dark, narrow hall, unaware of the looming figures behind me.

"Aw. Is the little man bored?" I hear a woman from behind me. I just continue.

"I do believe so sister." Another voice said.

"Why don't you look at us, little man so we can help you?" A third asked

"Sorry, I'm not in the mood to be turned to stone by your hideous faces."

"My how rude you are!" The first blurted. "I'll have you know we are very beautiful. Such a heathon as yourself is undeserving of our beauty. Although we might give you a small peek."

"You're not fooling me." I tell them without looking back. "Your snakes are louder than Donald snoring." With that, I closed my eyes, muttered the Thundaga spell, turned around, and fried the three medusa wannabes into dust.

After entering two more portals, I found everyone waiting for me by a door. Entering inside, we found a treasure chest. In front of it was a clay statue of a giant man. It reached down for us slowly. Donald quickly pulled out his sword and cut straight through it in a single swing. Inside the chests, were Guantlets. I found a magical aura around it that matched my Thundara bracelet. I handed them to Alishia. "I don't think you can wear those." I told her. "But they may come in handy." With that we continued working through the maze until we found a staircase.

At the top was a long hall lined with coffins. On them were enscriptions of peoples names. Most likely people who died as great heroes. Halfway through the hall, eight of the coffins opened up and mummies came out of them. Donald pushed me and Alishia down the hall. "Don't worry." Jordan told us. "We've got this one!" And so we ran into the next room where a Nightmare Horse cut us off. Alishia quickly broke all of it's bones with a single hit. I took the liberty of opening the chest nearby and found a healing staff. Alishia and I also ran into beasts that tried to eat us. All of them aimed for Alishia first.

"Go on ahead." She said while drop kicking one that lunged at her. "I'll catch up soon." I did as she said. Stopping only to open three treasure chests that contained steel gloves, another ice sword like Donald's, and a ruby armlet. I quickly came face to face with an army of horned devils and grinned at them. Cracking my fingers I let out the biggest Thundaga I could muster.

"All unjust beings will fall under the mighty hammer of Thor, God of Thunder! Let the heavens roar with your might!" They got a few quick hits but I soon turned them to ash with my magic. At the end of the hall, I found four treasure chests, but one was open and empty. The other three contained a cottage and.................. gil again. I stomped to the next room. I also used a Hi-potion to heal some of my wounds. The next room had another throne and a chest beside it. I just knew that inside was our token of courage. I opened the chest and reached inside. My eyes were closed in anticipation when I felt a small object at the bottom. I slowly pulled it out and opened my eyes. I had a huge smile on my face... until I saw I was holding a rat's tail. I frowned and looked into the now empty chest.

"Congratulations." Said the old man behind me. "You have successfully made it through the Citadel of Trials and have proven your courage." The old man smiled warmly, but I wasn't having it.

"_This_ is the token of courage!? A tail of a rat!?" I yelled. He nodded. "So you're saying this is what we came here for?" Another nod. "This is the thing that's going to keep Bahamut, the Dragon King, from eating us?" Another nod. "The tail of a rodent that we could've easily gotten by going to Melmond and killing a rat?" Another nod. I stared at him for a long time. "Then this was a total waste of time and effort!"

"Was it?" I nodded. "Well then, I guess I should keep the tail." He streched out his hand.

"Hey, we worked hard for this. I'm not giving it up to anyone." I held the tail defensively.

"Not even them?" He pointed behind me. I turned to see four undead dragons slithering towards me. Looking back the old man was gone. A dragon reached from behind and grabbed me. I would've used a spell but I didn't have enough time, so I hit it with my staff.

The rotting reptiles circled around me. I thought of how I had just left everyone for that stupid tail. I felt like a jerk. _They're probably still struggling_, I thought. I grip the tail tightly. "Well I'm not giving up either." I said this as I started the spell of Firaga. A dragon came leaping at me but was quickly kicked away by Alishia. She looked back at me and grinned then continued pounding the undead monster. I continued with the spell. Another one lunged and Donald blocked it from nowhere. Jordan also distracted a third one with dia spells. Soon all of the dragons were surrounded on all sides by us. I finished them off with Firaga. "Thanks guys" I said stepping towards the second throne. "Now what do you say we get out of here?"

* * *

It had taken us the rest of the day to get to get back to the airship. We camped inside for the night. "Hey, Bram." Alishia said when I was walking to my room.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked her and she looked at the ground.

"I've been thinking about what you said before. You know, about staying here." I nodded for her to continue. "I've decided that... I'm staying too!" She blurts out. "It's just, so much fun." She smiled.

"Face it, you have other reasons." She stared at me. "You just want to stay with the dragons." She looked down and laughed in defeat.

"You got me." She looked back up. "But I really do want to stay."

"Don't worry." I tell her. "You have plenty of time, if you want to change your mind." I smile and head to my room for the night. "Goodnight Alishia. Remember that you're the pilot, so rest well." She nodded and went to her room as well.

* * *

"**LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE MEN...**" Bahamut looked at Alishia and Jordan, who knelt beside me and Donald respectively. "**...AND WOMEN... OF COURAGE STOOD BEFORE ME. YOUR BRAVERY IS WORTH CONSIDERATION.**" We had traveled to the cave and given Bahamut the rat's tail. "**THE RAT'S TAIL YOU CARRY IS A FITTING TOKEN OF COURAGE AND STRENGTH...**" I eyeed the tail at his feet evily.

"So you're not going to eat us?" Donald asked warily.

"**ON THE CONTRARY YOUNG WARRIOR.**" Bahamut bellowed. "**SO BE IT... I SHALL HONOR YOU WITH TITLES BEFITTING YOUR VALOR.**" Bahamut flapped his wings and we were all caught in a huge gust of wind and dust. I shut my eyes from the oncoming wind. When the wind stopped my eyes were still shut. I felt the tip of Bahamut's tail rest on my shoulder. "**STAND UP BRAM, WARRIOR OF LIGHT AND SAVIOR OF THE SEA, AS THE BLACK WIZARD.**" I stood and opened my eyes to find my that clothes had changed. I was wearing poofy pinstriped pants and pointy, curly shoes. I also found my robes had turned into a cloak and a wool shirt. Finally, my hat.. got bigger with a blue stripe around it.

"**RISE DONALD, WARRIOR OF LIGHT AND KEEPER OF THE FLAMES, AS SIR DONALD, THE KNIGHT." **I looked to my right to see Donald dressed in shining steel armor that seemed to make him glow as if he were eclipsing the sun. He wore a yellow cape and a crown-shaped helmet. His sword hung in a scabbard by his waist.

"**STAND JORDAN, WARRIOR OF LIGHT AND PROTECTOR OF THE EARTH, AS THE WHITE WIZARD.**" Donald and I looked over to see Jordan wearing a glittering white and red dress instead of robes. Her hood was replaced with a long, flowing white cloak. Glitter covered her face as well.

I quickly looked left to see what Alishia looked like, but Bahamut's tail blocked my sight. "**FINALLY, ALISHIA, WARRIOR OF LIGHT AND GUARDIAN OF THE SKY, YOU ARE WORTHY OF THE TITLE: MASTER.**" Bahamut lifted his tail and I saw her. She wore an outfit similar to Cid's. She wore a long blue coat, that touched the ground, with a black shirt visable underneath. A red sash tied the coat at her waist and she wore blue pants that seemed extremely easy to move in. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Finally white bandages were wrapped around her hands in feet. She wore no shoes.

"**BRAVE WARRIORS.**" We came to attention as the Dragon King spoke. "**YOUR JOURNEY IS A LONG AND PERILOUS ONE. I WOULD REQUEST THAT YOU TAKE SOME OF THE TREASURE WE HAVE COLLECTED OVER THE YEARS. I'M SURE THAT NO ONE WOULD DISAGREE. CORRECT?**" He stared at the dragon to our left. The spiteful reptile simply shook his head. "**GOOD. NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME.**" Bahamut let out a ferocious yawn and laid down. "**I BELIEVE I'LL TAKE A NAP. IF SOMEONE COULD WAKE ME IN A HUNDRED YEARS OR SO, THAT WOULD BE APPRECIATED.**"


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note:****It's finally here. "What took this so long?" you might ask. Well the thing is, I'm actually playing the game along with writing the story and I'm trying to see what it would actually be like. So I tried to go through this section with one character (you'll see why) and I also had to keep said character alive. IT WAS NOT EASY. Especially since this level is kind of annoying... that is all. Also-**

**WARNING:**** People swear a lot here.**

[Chapter 13]

[The Scarecrow Saves the Little Mermaids]

We took the liberty of exploring the caves of the Dragon Islands. The dragons practically shoved the treasure into our hands. They said it was nothing but junk to them. We tried restraining Alishia because she wanted to take a dragon with us. However, her newfound powers made her too strong for even Donald. Then I had an idea. If Alishia gained phisical strength from Bahamut, then maybe I could perform more simple magic without the use of spells. I tried it out while she was accidentally choking a dragon with a bear hug. I snapped my fingers and she slid away from the poor reptile that was soon gasping for air. I snapped my fingers again and her hands shot behind her back in an invisible bind.

After a while I let her go, because she promised to control herself. In the last of the caves a huge dragon, but not as big as Bahamut, rounded a corner, spotted us, and let out a ferocious roar. Alishia stood staring at it. It grinned devilishly (I think) and then... Alishia hugged it to the point of near suffocation. I snapped agian and she floated into the air. "You, do not fear me..." The dragon gasped. "You have some spine in you human." He ended up laughing. "Here, take my treasures." He handed everything to me. I stuffed it into the magic pouch.

"Umm..." Alishia stammered staring at the dragon. "Can I ask you a favor Mr. Dragon?"

"Sure, Fearless-One, ask anything you'd like." Alishia beamed at her new nick-name.

"Can you please travel with us?" The dragon was shocked, then frowned (I think) and shook his head. "Sorry, but I must stay here. I have to train our kind to be a mighty and unstoppable force." He shrugged apoligetically. Alishia sulked but then an idea seemed to spark in her head. She walked over to the huge dragon.

"Well then..." She cupped a hand over her mouth and stood on her toes to whisper. The dragon bent down and his pointy ears twitched as she spoke quietly.

"It would be my pleasure, Fearless-One." She then stepped back and dragged Donald and Jordan away. I stood in confusion. Then I looked over at the dragon who's head was rearing back in a huge breath. I looked back at Alishia and saw a devilish grin. Looking at the dragon once more I figured everything out.

"Oh... damn it all." I mutter as I start running away from the huge fireball the dragon shot at me. It was only at the end of the hall that I realized I had ice magic to defend myself. So I tried out a quick blizzard and the fireball was gone.

"Hahaha! It seems that scarecrows do fear fire!" Everyone laughed as they remembered the old joke about me being a scarecrow. _I have such _great_ friends. _I think sarcastically.

In the end, we had recieved a cottage, a tent, a dry ether, a gold needle, an elixir, an X-potion, gil, gil, gil, and more flippin gil! We had thanked the huge dragon and went back to the airship where we suffered through more of Alishia's terrible flying. Admitedly, though, she had gotten better at going in one direction... but she still never flew steadily and I never dared opening my eyes.

To help Alishia out, we securely pinned the map to a small stand next to where she stood. Soon, she landed in a huge windy clearing. She came over to me, tapped me shoulder, and told me we landed.

"Can you go get Donald and Jordan?" I asked. "I'm going to need a bit to loosen my muscles."

"Honestly, why don't you just wait below deck from now on?" She asked while slapping my back. All my clenched muscles released and my bones popped as I fell to the ground and stood up.

"Because, someone needs to make sure you're on the right course and don't crash the ship." I brushed off my hat and and poofy pants.

"A lot of good you're doing on that with your eyes closed."

"Yeah yeah yeah- keep talking." I said as Donald and Jordan came from below deck. But then something happened. I noticed something strange to me as I began to put on my hat. My hair was hanging in my face. In the beginning, my hair had been cut extremely short. Now it was long enough to obscure my vision. I couldn't believe it took me this long to notice how much we had changed.

Alishia's hair now hung all they way to the ground, even though it was tied up. Donald had grown taller and he was no longer skin and bones, he had huge muscles from swinging his sword, and finally his hair had grown out a lot. Jordan looked pretty much the same, but she seemed brighter and more energetic. I looked over everyone and noticed one more annoying thing... all of our nails were about an inch longer than they should've been. I stared at my hand for a while, then everyone else noticed the same things I did. We were all disturbed by our freakishly long nails, but then I pulled out a knife from our bag and held it up. "Anyone up for a trim?" I asked them all and they looked at me very annoyed. _How pitiful,_ I thought to my self. _The Warriors of Light annoyed with extremely long nails._

"I really hate you, Bram. I really do." Jordan said with a red face as we walked into the town of Onrac. "The next time you do that, you're dead."

"I said sorry! Jeez." I rubbed my cheek where Jordan had kicked me. I was helping her cut her toe-nails, but she jumped and kicked me as soon as I touched her foot. Donald ended up helping her.

It was pretty late so the first things we did were stock up and rest at the inn. The next day we decided to split up and explore the town. I decided not to buy any spells because they were pretty useless to me. I also met another scholar who I talked to.

"Hey, mister." He looked over. "You look like a guy who knows some history. Tell me, do you know any interesting stories or legends?"

"Sorry, I don't know much about history, just a bit about ancient languages." He scratched the back of his head.

"Like what?" I asked him curiously.

"Like..." He thought for a minute. "Ah! Long ago, an ancient race known as the Sky People used a language called Lufenian." I nodded. The man smiled and looked at the sky. "My brother, Unne, would always talk about it, telling me how he could speak it if he only had the Rosetta Stone." I remembered back to Melmond and the guy who pointed me towards Jordan. I immediately regreted mispronouncing his name.

"I remember him." I said. "I met him in Melmond... but that's quite a long way away. Why are you two so far apart?"

He looked at the ground. "You see, I heard that there was a place called the Sunken Shrine that was filled with riches." A lady to our right coughed and glared at him from the side. I assumed she was the one who told him that. "And she told me that it even had tablets describing lost languages and civilizations." He pointed to the lady. "So I thought I'd try and get it for Unne. But it's at the bottom of the ocean and no one can get there." He sighed. "If only I had oxyale, then I could definately find a way to-"

I interupted him. "Stop. Rewind. What in the name of the crystals is 'oxyale'?"

He stared at me dumbfounded. "Oh, sorry. It's a magical liquid that can somehow let people breath underwater."

"Okay thanks."

"No problem." He laughed until a bell started to ring at the church. "Sorry, I have to go now. I'll see you later." I waved to Dr. Unne's brother as he headed for whatever he was doing and continued on through town. I had spent hours trying to gather information on the Sunken Shrine and oxyale. In the end, I learned nothing except that a guy named Koppe saw something fall from the sky and that a guy in a caravan was selling something weird.

"Damnit!" I said as I sat down on a wall and threw my hat on to my lap. Soon, Jordan, Donald, and Alishia joined me. "So what did you guys do all day?" It was now a few minutes past noon.

"I did nothing." Alishia said in a bored voice. "Nothing but beat every single guy in town at arm wrestling." I subtly moved away from her. She still noticed and glared at me.

"I ended up chopping fire wood for a nice lady who's husband was too sick to move." Donald told me tiredly. We all looked at Jordan for her answer.

She blushed and looked away. "I went to the church." She said. "I just sat there and did nothing really but listen to people muttering prayers to the crystals."

"Ugh!" I grunted. "Am I the only one who got anything useful?" I complained.

"And what exactly did you do, _Scarecrow_!" Alishia glared at me. She looked a little frustrated.

"I spent hours learning about the Sunken Shrine, oxyale, Sky People, and the Rosetta Stone!" I yelled.

"And what exactly did you learn?" Donald stepped in for her defense. He was glaring too.

"Well... you see... I..." I looked at my hat. I basically learned nothing about that stuff. I was about to tell them the basics when a huge laughter came from the villages southern entrance.

"Bwahahaha!" The voice laughed. "Amazing! These human have been honored by the Dragon King! Bwahaha!" A dragon flew over to us. Alishia's frustration left her face as she saw one of her favorite creatures. "How'd you acomplish that? Kill a normal rat and steal it's tail? Hahaha!"

"Shut up you stupid lizard!" I yelled as I put on my hat and stood on the wall. Alishia glared at me again. "We happen to be the Warriors of Light!"

"Bwahaha! These other three I can see but you? A stupid scarecrow? As a savior of the world? That's too rich! Bwahahaha!" He was flailing in laughter. "I bet you couldn't do anything on your own! You'd burn from the heat of the sun, _Scarecrow_!"

"It's true." Jordan said. "He can't really do anything on his own." She walked next to the dragon. "In fact, I can't count the times I've had to use magic to protect him."

"Not to mention I've swatted more than twelve dozen monsters away from him when he was about to die." Donald joined.

"He brags about his magic like it's important but it really doesn't do much." Alishia shrugged. They all laughed.

I could feel my face turning red from the embarassment and anger I felt. I looked down at the blue crystal at my neck and clutched it in my trembling hand. "Fine then." I muttered and they all stopped laughing to stare. I jumped down from the wall. "If that's how you all feel... THEN I QUIT!" The whole town went silen as I ripped the crystal from my neck, threw it to the ground, and walked away towards the small pier at the end of town. "And don't any of you dare try following me!"

I feel something hit the back of my head really hard. "Like we would want to you stupid scarecrow!" I heard Alishia yelled at me. I looked down to see that she had thrown the necklace I made for out of fangs and a curtain.

I sat on the small pier for some time alone. The sun was starting to set over the horizon, but not even that beautiful scene could calm me down. "Damnit." I picked up a rock and threw it into the water. "Why do I have to be so useless?" I ask myself.

"I know how you feel." A girl wearing a blue dress sat next to me. "I wanted to save the mermaids on the seafloor, so I made this submarine out of a barrel. But when I went underwater, I started running out of air, and I couldn't breath. It's totally useless! Evenworse, it's dangerous. You'd better stay away."

"Dangerous? Hah!" I scoffed. "Danger is my middle name!"

"Really?" The girl asked wide-eyed.

"No, not really." I sighed. "But maybe if I could get some oxyale. Then I could go down and save your mermaid friends."

"Would you really do that?" She asked quickly.

"Of course I would after all I'm..." I stopped myself. I was about to say a Warrior of Light, which I wasn't anymore.

"Yes... you're what exactly?" She looked me over.

"I'm... the greatest mage to ever live!" I make up. "Bram the Scarecrow. At your service, miss."

"Oooh." She laughed. "That's funny, Mr. Scarecrow. But I really do appreciate the offer. However, maybe a Warrior of Light would be better for the task."

"Pfft." I look away. "Those stuck up jerks wouldn't do anything like that. They'd probably just laugh at you and your submarine. I promise I _will_ find some oxyale and I _will_ save your mermaid friends."

The girl stared at me until the sun fully set. "Thanks Mr. Scarecrow." She finally said. "I'll leave it to you."

"I am the biggest moron... in the entire world!" I yell as I run from monsters across a desert. Not only did I steal the folding canoe, but I also took a huge bag of gil, all of the treasures we had, and the map. I was headed towards the caravan I heard about in town. Rumors had it that a guy was selling something strange. I reasoned it might've been oxyale.

Instead, all I got for 40,000 gil was a fairy in a bottle. I paid the man his money, went outside and opened the bottle. "You freed me." The little fairy said. "Why?"

"To be honest, I thought you'd heal me." I answered. "Usually fairies in bottles do that."

"Sorry. But those are pink fairies. I'm a blue one"

I drop my head. "Ugh! You're not going to start going 'Hey! Listen! Hey! Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Listen!' and then tell me useless things, like how to open a door, are you?"

Instead of an answer I got an attempt at a hug and the fairy saying. "I'm so sorry. You've obviously met the all mighty annoying one! I really am sorry."

"Wow. Her annoyance even reaches into different dimensions." I mutter.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." I blurt. "Anyways, can you help me?"

"Anything for a poor soul that's been tortured by the annoying one." She tried, and failed, to hug tighter.

"Do you know anything about oxyale?"

"Do I ever!" She squealed and flew around excitedly. "I'm the only fairy who can get it after all."

"Really?" I ask and she nods with a smug look on her face. "Can you help me get some?"

"Depends." She said. "Can you fly?"

I gulpped. "Yes... but not very well" I said nervously. My new fairy friend grinned at me.

"I am so dead if the others find out about this." I said to myself as I boarded the ariship with the fairy, who did not tell me her name. I looked around. No one was in sight. I headed below deck to the engine room where the levistone was. It was floating between two sockets. I walked up to it and spun it as hard as I could. The stone spun faster and faster until all the gears of the ship were moving and spinning the propellers outside. I hurried up to the deck and to the helm. I eyed the lever to my right that controled the anchors, boarding plank, and landing gear.

"What on earth do you think you're doing!" I heard Alshia yell from the boarding plank of the ship. "Don't you dare say you're taking the airship as well." She was furious.

"Sorry." I simply said as I pulled the lever. The four anchors retracted into the ship, the boarding plank slid under the deck, and the landing gear legs folded up and were pulled back into the ships cargo hold. "I'll return this soon!" I yelled to Alishia, who was still on the ground. "I promise you at least that!" Then I steared the ship to the east end flew it as fast as I could.

"Wow, you really suck at flying." Said the fairy who was sitting, exhausted, on my shoulder. I had landed to a valley where she had pointed at. "So who was that girl back there?"

"No one really." I lied as I walked into town. "So what is this place."

"This is the town of Gaia." She told me. She jumped off my shoulder and flew around a bit. "It feels great to be home." She looked at me for a few minutes. "I'm going to a spring at the north of town. Meet me there tommorrow, when you're done doing what you need to do, and I'll give you the oxyale. Okay?" I nodded in agreement and she flew off. I then walked over to the inn, which was huge, and stayed there for the night.

The next day, I went shopping. I bought a Blizzaga spell, a magic ring that kept me safe from spells that could instantly kill me, and some gloves with long knife-blades on each finger, called Cat Claws. Boy, let me tell you, it was _expensive_. I vowed on that day to not complain about all the gil we found. After all of that I went to talk with the fairy.

"You're the one who rescued me from the bottle!" She squealed as I walked over to her.

"No duh!" I laughed. "You've only been hanging out with me for like two days."

"I'm sorry about running away, but I was just so scared..."

"What are you talking about?" I asked her, confused.

"Just role with it." She whispered. "If the others knew I actually hung out with a human I'd be put on the same level as the annoying one. We'll talk to humans, but never actually stay with them for more than an hour."

"I see, please continue then." I whisper back.

"Ahem- I'll get you some oxyale from the bottom of the spring to make up for it, okay?" I nodded in agreement. "Okay then... give me the bottle." I handed it to her. "I'll be right back." She took the bottle and flew into the spring. A few minutes passed until she came back up and handed the bottle to me. Strangely it actually felt lighter than before. "Air will flow out of that water for as long as you have it!"

"Cool." I said while staring at the liquid. "But... how could I use this to breath underwater?"

She thought long and hard about it. "I know! Try drinking it. Then you can breath forever."

"Okay then. I'll try that out." I walked away and stopped. "Hey, fairy." She tilted her head. "If three people come here with this bottle and mention the scarecrow, can you give them some oxyale too?" She thought for a minute and nodded. "Thanks." As I headed out of town, I passed by the magic and armor shops I looked at them for a long time, sighed, and went inside both of them.

"Not even going to say hi?" Donald asked as I passed the inn.

"There wouldn't be any point." I said as I dropped two small bags at his feet.

"What are these?" He asked.

"The smaller one is the money left over from getting oxyale and some things for you guys, which are in the other bag that's been holding our items." I held up the oxyale for him to see. Then I walked on towards the pier without another word.

"You..." The girl with the submarine said as I approached. "You have oxyale." I nodded to her. "You are the one we've been waiting for." She walked up and hugged me. I cringed. I don't like being hugged. "Please, Mr. Scarecrow, save the mermaids!" She sobbed. I tried to say something but she let go, backed up, and slowly faded away with a smile on her face. Soon, she was completely gone. I looked down at the oxyale, opened the bottle, and downed the whole thing. It tasted like carbonated water. Yuck.

"Bram!" Jordan ran up to me. I almost choked. "Why didn't you tell us you were back?" She panted.

"It's like I said to Donald." I coughed. "There was no need to say anything." I tossed her the now empty bottle. "I'm going to the Sunken Shrine." I told her. "If you want to go there as well, go to the town of Gaia, find a fairy at a spring there. If you show her the bottle and mention the 'scarecrow' she'll give you some oxyale."

"I thought you said not to follow you." She eyed me skeptically.

"I never said you would be." I stepped into the small submarine. "See you around, Jordan." I closed the lid and slowly deccended into the ocean.

I sighed deeply as I exited the submarine. It was weird being able to breath underwater. I was so used to holding my breath. I walked around the first room, trying to get a feel for how to move. Although oxygen was constantly entering my lungs, somehow, I sank to the floor like I was on the moon. I tried jumping and I accidentally hit my head on the roof. Water physics still applied in some ways.

After getting comfortable I started walking/swiming forward. Soon I ran into a group of nine Sahagin. All of them were red except for one blue one which swam towards me. "You are trespassing into our kingdom, surface dweller." It told me. "State your buisness here, and you shall be given a painless death."

"Dude, I've been in this world for a little over two months and I've already figured out a painless death doesn't exist here." I replied in an annoyed manner. "By the way, the last time I checked, this place belonged to the mermaids."

"Infidel!" The blue Sahagin exclaimed. "The mermaids have been detained for high treason against his majesty. Those who aide them shall be punished!"

"Blah, blah, blah." I picked at my newly cut nails. "Geez people like you are a broken record. Do you _ever_ shut up about your ruler?"

"Enough! Sahagin chiefs, attack!" He yelled and then... nothing. Nothing happened and the other fish people were gone. "Where the hell did they go?"

"Who? Those other guys? Oh, I fried them with a Thundara. You probably didn't notice their screams of agony or the sound of the electrical current through your annoying chattering. Now then." I grabbed the blue fish-man by the back of his neck. It was easy to pick him up do to the physics of being underwater. "If you would be so kind, I'm looking for some mermaids that I heard were down here. Do you happen to know where they are?"

"I'll never tell you." He tried to struggle free.

"Oh well." I sighed and threw him against a wall. Before he did anything I snapped my fingers and he was electrocuted as well. "I mean, it's not like I don't have another thousand monsters where you came from." I continued walking through the Sunken Shrine. After exploring the first floor, I found some gil. I gave a silent thank you this time because, after the things I bought from Gaia, I was completely broke. I had also found two stair cases. One went up, the other went down. I decided to go up first.

The next floor. The only thing there was a bunch of treasure chests. One contained 20 gil. One had armor made of diamonds, which was as hard to pick up as a horse. The next had an axe that seemed extremely heavy but it was as light as a feather, it also had a white magical aura around it. Another had a staff with the same magical glow as my fira bracelet. The last had enough gil to make up for the insult of the first chest having only twenty.

The journey on that floor was perilous, as the chests were scattered throughout it. The floor was also crawling...er...swimming..._filled_ with monsters. These included the sahagins, sharks, ghosts, snakes, and... oddly enough, whirlpools. I slaughtered all that stood in my way with the power of Thundaga. All except the ghosts. I killed them with Firaga...underwater...don't ask. It was lucky for me that I decided to buy another bag earlier and that I stole half the ethers and potions. Finally, I reached the next set of stairs and headed up. That's when I found them... the mermaids. They were all chained to the walls by their fins. I broke each one with a quick slash from the Cat Claws I had on. One of the mermaids told me that they would all turn into sea foam if the sea lost it's light. Another told me of a mermaid that traveled to the surface and never came back. My mind instantly flashed to the girl who gave me the submarine. One more told me that the Fiend of Water was none other than the Kraken and that he was on the bottom floor, while I was on the top. One of them said something about the Mirage Tower in the desert and that she saw someone go into it after hearing a chiming sound.

"Wait!" I said. "How in the name of the crystals were you able to see that?"

"Umm..." She started, puzzled. "With my eyes?"

"No, that's not what I mean. The tower is in the _middle of a desert_, right?" She nodded. "What are deserts known for?"

"Sand...blazing heat...freezing cold nights... lack of water..."

"Exactly. If you're a mermaid, how the hell did you see something in the middle of the desert, _with no water?_" She quickly swam away before answering.

There were chests containing an armlet, a shield, gloves, a helmet (all made of diamond), an antidote, a ton of gil, and then Rosetta Stone. I whooped after finding the last one. After all that I began to set out for the bottom. A few of the mermaids followed. They never fought, but they were good company.

When we reached the floor I entered in on, I stared at the submarine and thought of the others._ How will they get down here if they decide to follow?_ I wondered. I looked back at the mermaids who were discussing something in secret. "Excuse me ladies." They looked at me. "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Anything for the man who rescued us." The older one said.

"You see that submarine over there?" I pointed to the vessal.

"All I see is a barrel with a window." The youngest said.

"That's it, can you take that up to the town of Onrac? I think it would be more useful there."

"Hmmm..." The third one thought for a second. "I've got a better idea. Why don't we start up a buisness girls?" If question marks could appear above peoples' heads, then the biggest one would've appeared above mine. After huddling for a while they nodded. "We'll do it. As long as we get to keep the barrel and you'll allow use to ferry anyone between here and the surface."

"Huh?" I asked. "Whatever, fine, it's yours."

"Great!" The youngest cheered. "Of course you'll be allowed to ride free of charge."

"That's... good?" I thought for a second. "Oh, if you see a knight, a white wizard, and a master, can you bring them down here for free too?" They thought again and nodded. "Thanks." I said, then I headed downstairs... only to go back up two floors, then down one, grab some gil, and down again to get to where I was going.

After finally reaching the main area of the first lower floor, I explored for some chests. In the end I found gloves from a giant, another light axe, a ribbon, and the ever constant gil. I also learned that birds and mummies live underwater and that fire burns them just as well beneath the sea. After a semi-non-perilous journey, I finally reached the bottom floor. The bottom of the ocean and the deepest part of this world. How the pressure wasn't crushing me was anyone's guess but I didn't care. I started my journey to the chamber on the far side of the shrine.

At last, I reached the chamber, I could see the putrid water oozing from the cracks in it. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. There I was, all alone, preparing to fight one of the deadliest creatures in all of mythology. A monster so gigantic, sailors confused it for an island. A being said to be undefeatable and immortal... or maybe that was the leviathan, I always mix those two up. I slowly reached for the door and rushed inside.

"Come on you ugly fish-faced freak! I'm ready for you!" I yelled into the chamber with the crystal. The first response I recieved was a deep clogged up laugh.

"Hmph. You humans do impress... I would not have thought to see you here." The orb rose and grew into a large squid-like creature with tentacles wrapping around each other to make a somewhat humanoid form. A cape was tied around the spot where the tentacles and the head met. "But do you really think you can defeat the Fiend of water in my own domain?"

"Umm... origianlly, no." I confessed. "After actually seeing you, though, I think I have a good shot."

"Fool! These dark depths shall be your tomb!" The Kraken reached for me with five tentacles. I tried to dodge but it grabbed me and started to crush me. "Hahaha. Fool! Did you think some stupid scarecrow could defeat me? Only the one who bears the crystal of water can defeat me."

"Nice to know." I gasped. "I'll be sure to tell that to everyone else."

"How will you do that if you're dead?" The Kraken mocked.

"Because: All unjust beings will fall under the mighty hammer of Thor, God of Thunder! Let the heavens roar with your might!" I yelled and Thundaga electrocuted both the Kraken and myself. I fell to the ground, defenseless and weak. "I can't move." I muttered. I saw the Kraken move back and then regain his composure.

"You little rat! You will recieve a slow and agonizing death."

"So what, you're going to breath on me until I die?" I choked out.

"Cocky, even in the face of death." The fiend laughed. "I admire that."

"Whatever." I gave up. "Just hurry up already." _I should have never left everyone_. I thought as the world started to go dark. _They were probably just kidding around, and I treated them seriously. Now I'm going to die because I couldn't take a joke. And then the world will be destroyed. The Kraken said only the one with the water crystal could kill him. That's me, and now I've lost. I'm sorry everyone._ I closed my eyes for what I believed to be the last time.

That's when I heard a huge blast of lightning hit the Kraken and my eyes shot open. I was also regaining strength. Finally, I remember hearing a large scream from the Kraken and one of it's appendages falling next to me. "Get up!" Someone lifted me up and set something in my hands. I looked up to see Donald holding the gauntlets with lightning magic, Jordan healing me, and Alishia holding the Kraken's severed limb. "This is your fight!" Alishia said. "You finish it!"

"Right!" I stood up, stared at the crystal Alishia put in my hand, and put it on around my neck. "Kraken! Your days of terror have ended! So says Bram the Black Wizard, the Warrior of Light destined to save the oceans from you!"

"It can't be!" The monster backed away. "You four are-. Please, please spare me!" The creature dropped to the floor.

I walked up to it slowly and stared at it for a long time. After what was probably five minutes, the creature looked up and I simply said, "No." I stabbed it in brain and sent an electrical current through the claws and directly into it's head. It disintegrated into sea foam. I then held up the crystal and it regained it's light. Briskly, I walked to the back of the room and stepped on the teleportation glyph. "Last one out's a rotten egg." I was then sent up to the surface.

One benefit of the teleportation was the fact it completely dried me off. Another was that it delayed what was coming ever since I left... for all of five seconds. When the others appeared behind me, there was an awkward silence. After a few minutes I decided to say something. "I-" But Alishia smacked me as hard as she could. I lost a few of my back teeth from the impact. After spitting it out I looked back. "As I was saying, I'm sorry."

"What did I tell you!" Donald grabbed me by the collar. "We do everything together or not at all! If you had died the whole world would be screwed!"

"Maybe you should have said that earlier when you saw me at the inn." He threw me against a tree. "Ouch." I groaned, as I hit the ground. I stood up and regarded Jordan. "I take it's your turn now." She shook her head. I gave a sigh of relief. "Does everyone have the anger out of their system."

"You don't." Alishia told me. "After what we said to you." We all stood silence for a while.

"You're right." I told her. "Maybe I should repay the jerk who started all this."

"- and then the little scaredy cat ran away crying!" The dragon laughed in the dining hall of the inn.

"Ha...ha..." I laughed as I walked up to the reptile. All eyes fell on me. Alishia looked a little down from what I was about to do. "Alishia." She looked up. "Why don't you and the others go get our rooms?" She nodded and they walked out.

"Well if it aint the little scarecrow." The dragon mocked. "Are you done crying now?"

"I never was." I told him and started to form electricity in my hands. "But soon you will be. Very soon indeed." The dragon made a noise that sounded somewhat like the whimpering of a dog.

A little bit later, I started walking to my room. I woke a huge man that was sleeping the hall. "Excuse me sir, but can you help the guys in there clean up? They're gonna need it. Oh, and the sleeping lizard said he'll pay everyone for their help." Upon the last sentence the man bolted into the dining hall. Loud crashing noises followed shortly after. He must have tripped

"What happened in there?" Alishia asked a little scared.

"Nothing too bad. But I have a feeling that dragon will be here a really long time" I grinned.

"Excuse me!" A man opened the front door of the inn. "I'm looking for a man called a scarecrow wizard guy!"

"That's me." I raised my hand.

"The mermaids asked me to tell you some things."

"Like what?"

"They wanted me to tell you that you are an offcial hero to them and you're welcome to visit whenever the monsters are all cleared out."

"Okay, tell them I said thanks and that I'll be sure to visit sometime."

"Alright. Oh, can you do me a favor as well?"

"Sure." I smiled at the man.

"My name is Koppe. The other night, I saw a shining object fall near the waterfall to the north. No one believes me, but I think it was some kind of mechanical creature! Can you check it out for me?"

I looked at Alishia. "Looks like we have another quest to go on. What do you say, will you join me?" I stuck out my hand.

"Duh!" She laughed and shook my hand. When she pulled her hand away, she found the necklace I made for her. Then she put it on. The Warriors of light were officially back together.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: *****looks up from the keyboard* Oh, hello. I didn't see you there. What's that? "What took so long for this chapter to come out?"? Oh, that's simple. I've been typing other things, such as original stories and poems. I've also been procrastinating... um... why do you have that chainsaw? What's with that murderous look in your eye? Wait! Please, no! I'm sorry! Please don't kill me! I promise I'll work harder! Whew. Please enjoy!**

[Chapter 14]

[The Storm Begins]

The next day, Alishia and I decided to head out before the

sun came up. We left a note for Donald and Jordan telling them to do take a break or do something else. "Are you sure about this?" I asked Alishia. "I already left them once, I don't think they'll take it as well this time. Not to mention we're leaving all the important stuff behind." All she told me to get was half the potions, ethers, and the folding canoe.

"Don't worry." She told me. "We'll probably be back before they even wake up. How big could the area around the waterfall be?" How I wish she hadn't asked that because it was pretty huge. "Are you sure you don't remember anything from the game, Bram?" She asked after a while.

I shake my head. "It's all slowly been becoming a blur to me. Sometimes I even forget that we're from another world." I smack my head. "Damnit, this is so frustrating! I wish we had more clues to solve the mystery behind this mechanical creature near the waterfall." Then something sparked in my brain along with Alishia's.

"Oh come on!" Alishia sighed and stopped helping with the rowing. "All this time and it's behind the stupid waterfall? How do you forget something like that?"

"What school do we go to?" I asked in return. She stood and prepared to answer but something washed over her face. Fear and realization. Slowly she sat down and stared at her hands.

"I don't remember." She looked up. "Where are we even from? Who are we really?" She kept asking questions like this until I interuppted.

"Alishia! That doesn't matter right now. We'll remember by the time this is over, but for now we have to save the world." The waterfall could be heard in the distance. "Why does it even matter?" She looked up. "You said you would stay here, right?" She nodded. "Then why do we need to remember?" The trip from there was silent, as I rowed towards the waterfall.

"Look." I said while walking into the cave behind the waterfall. "I'm sorry for what I said back in the canoe."

"It's okay. I remember everything now. All I needed was a moment to remember." She confessed.

"I still feel like a jerk. Next time I do that, hit me." I tell her. She looks at me sadly and mutters under her breath. "What?" I ask.

"What?" She asks back. "We should get moving. If that thing fell from the sky, then it's probably totaled. We'll be lucky if we can even use it."

"We'll be lucky if we can even tell what 'it' is." I admit glumly. She looks at me puzzled. "If this thing is a machine that fell from space then the force of the crash would crush the thing like a tin can." She nods in understanding. My statement is contradicted though as we hear a soft whirring and clanking from farther in the cave.

We spent a long time trying to navigate the caves. It was impossible to navigate by the noise because of the massive echo the cave had and all of the monsters that attacked us. For some reason, horses seemed to take a particular interest in secret caves behind waterfalls, because we mostly fought those the whole time. Eventually, we ran across some pathetic mummies but I snapped my fingers and they were burned to ashes.

"You're getting too used to that." Alishia said after the mummies disappeared.

"Too used to what?" I asked, wiping off some dust that was on my shoulder.

"Using magic with barely any movement. It's kind of creepy."

"It just means I'm almost to the point where I'll start protecting you guys." I said rather smugly. "Soon I should be powerful enough to slay that two-headed dragon we fought before."

She stared at me for a while. "Are you still upset about that? You need to let it go."

I stood in silence for a few minutes. "I watched you three die, right before my eyes."

"We didn't die, Bram, we made it out fine. Please just forget about it."

"Don't lie to me!" I yelled. "Don't say that it wasn't real we have more than enough proof that it was."

"I'm not saying it wasn't real." She told me with a level head. "I'm just saying that we're fine now and that's all that counts."

I clenched my fists and bit the inside of my mouth to keep myself calm. When that didn't work, I ran as fast as I could, deeper into the cave. Alishia yelled after me and ran too. We kept running until I ran into a statue... at least I thought it was.

It turned out it was a Golem made of clay, and it had two buddies with it. "Get out of my way!" I yelled as I struck them with Blizzara. Unfortunately, that hardly did anything. The one I ran into got ready to smash me when Alishia stepped in and punched the creature. It crumbled into tiny pebbles. "As does Shiva's Diamond Dust, freeze my enemies to the soul and shatter their forms into oblivion!" Ice then started to form around the remaining two until they were completely encased in ice. Then, true to the spells words, they shattered into so many fragments that they quickly melted away before I could even estimate the amount.

"You were saying something about protecting _us_?" Alishia asked with a sigh. "Oh well." She helped me off the ground. "Next time, I handle the big guys, okay?" I stared at her for a second and nodded, and then we continued on. "So what was that back there? That was kind of cool... pun not intended."

I laughed a bit. "It's Blizzaga. I learned it when I went to Gaia with that fairy." I take off my left glove to show her the blue ring that had the spell, along with my braclets and the other rings.

She looked at my hand in thought. "You know, you don't look very good with those on."

"That's why I leave on the gloves." I told her.

"Have you ever tried taking one off?" She asked reaching for the ring.

"Not really." I admitted. "I always assumed that the come off normally." Alishia grabbed one of the rings and pulled... it didn't budge. She tried again as hard as she could but it still wouldn't move.

"It's stuck!" She said with a gasp.

"No it's not." I said and pulled the same one off with ease. "It's magic, so only the one wearing it can take it off."

"That sounds like a fantasy novelist's half-baked excuse to explain someone never losing a small object during a huge adventure."

"Who cares?" I asked, putting back on the ring and glove. "If it works, that's all that matters. Wait, do you hear that?" We stood in silence and listened to the sound of the whirring and clanking. It was coming from a door to our left. I slowly approached it and opened a door, only to be greeted by nine angry birds. They all started pecking at me until I fried them with a hasty Thundaga. They all fell in a heap on the floor.

"Hehe, fried chicken anyone?" I asked nervously as I opened the door. Inside, there was a metallic nightmare of a robot making the racket we heard throughout the cave. It had a humanoid figure with many dents and broken parts.

"Hello?" Alshia asked. The thing didn't respond. Then she knocked on its head and a red eye lit up.

"...I have BEEN waiting..." It told us. Its voice was filled with static, like it was speaking through a radio with a bad connection. "...take this CUBE...TIAmat...flying fortress...please..." A slot in its chest opened up and a small cube slid out on a tray. It was clear with a blue vortex inside. I reached forward and picked it up. As I did this, the robot started to spark and collapse with buzzing and whirring. I held the cube to Alishia and then pocketed it with everything else important.

Then our attention came to something even more important in the room... the treasure chests! There were six total containing: a wizard's staff, a ribbon, a defender sword, and enough gil to make up for what I spent in Gaia.

"Well, that was a fun adventure." Alishia said. "What do you say we get going now?"

"Alright." I said with a nod and we started towards the entrance of the cave and headed back to Onroc.

On our way there, Alishia asked something "Bram, did you just cast Thundaga miles away?"

"No, why do you ask?" She didn't need to answer as I heard the low rumbling of thunder. We looked into the distance and saw a huge ominous storm cloud coming in.

"Don't tell me that's a hurricane." Alishia said nervously.

"No, it just looks like a storm... a really bad one." I tried to calm her.

"I sure hope it won't be a problem." By this time, we should have learned to just shut up.

By the time we got back to the inn, we were soaked to the bone. It was so bad Donald ignored the fact we ditched him and Jordan. We stayed at the inn that night, in hopes of the storm clearing up by morning. That night, in the dining hall of the inn, we reviewed our next objectives. "Step one is to figure out where Alishia's Crystal is. Not the one she's wearing, the actual one." I told them.

"Let's see." Donald began. "Earth was underground, Fire was in a Volcano, and Water was at the bottom of the ocean."

Jordan piped in. "Maybe the next one is on the peak of the highest mountain?"

"Nope." Alishia blurted out. We all stared at her. "It's in space."

"How'd you figure that out?" I asked.

She looked at me. "Yours was at the lowest point in the world, so mine must be at the highest. You can't go higher than in space. Not to mention the robot fell from space."

"Well how will we get there?" Donald asked skeptically. Alishia nodded to me and I dug inside of our treasure bag.

"This might do something." I said as I pulled the cube we got from the robot.

"And how will this wonderful BOX do _anything_?"

"I don't know." I admitted. "But the robot gave it to us, so it must be useful."

"That's interesting." The scholar guy appeared behind Jordan and stared at the cube. "I've never even heard of anything like this."

"Who are you and why did you appear behind me?" Jordan asked, more than a little creped out.

"Who I am is not important. Who my brother is, on the other hand, _is_ important."

"Oh yeah, you're that guys brother." I snapped my fingers while thinking. "Dr. Ume"

"It's Unne!" Everyone yelled at me. I was shocked so much that I fell out of my chair.

"Ahem." Unne's brother cleared his throat. "Maybe the Lufenians could tell you what this thing is."

"Then we're off to find the Lufenians!" Donald put one foot on the table and pointed to the sky.

"Nobody has even heard any news of them for centuries." Donald fell to the floor from hearing this news. "Perhaps it's mentioned in one of the Lufenian journals Unne collected."

"Then we're off to read the Lufenian journals!" Jordan exclaimed, mimicing Donalds pose.

"Also impossible." Jordan sat down in depression. "The Lufenians speak a totally different language from us. You'd need the Rosetta Stone to learn their language."

"Then we set out on a quest to find the Rosetta Stone!" Alishia yelled and punched straight up into the air.

"Too late." I stated, pulling out the stone slab. Alishia slammed her head into the table, accidentally breaking it. "Don't worry, we'll pay you back!" I yelled to the manager who was eyeing us.

"You have the Rosetta Stone!" Unne's brother asked in amazment. "You must take it to my brother, _Unne_, immediately!"

"We would, but it's kind of late, and there's a pretty bad storm outside right now." As if on cue, lightning flashed outside a window.

"As it is right now, Warriors of Light, this storm will only get worse." A man wrapped in a cloak told us.

"How do you know that?" Jordan asked.

"I talked to the dancer in Cornelia." He told us. "She knows many things. Unfortunately the location of the Lufenians is unknown to her as well."

"Are you looking for them as well?" I asked.

"Not so much them as I am trying to find a friend who's with them. He got a note to me saying he was with them. I'd go look for him, but my ship can't sail in this weather."

We all thought for a minute. "Maybe the airship can move in the storm." Alishia suggested. "We could all go together. Is that okay with you mister?"

"Hey! Don't any of us get a say in this?" Donald asked. "I don't think we should take this guy along."

"It can't be helped." I told him. "Alishia's the leader until we restore the last crystal. That was the deal, remember?" Donald grumbles to himself.

"So mister, what should we call you?"

He looks over at us, his face concealed by a hood. "Tom. Tom Barry."

I eye him skeptically. "I highly doubt you're real name resembles that little imp thing that _doinks_ people."

"_Doinks_? What? Nevermind, I'm not giving my name to a bunch of kids who'll get their selves killed."

Donald stomped down his foot. "I'll have you know we could defeat anyone and anything in this world. I dare you to name one monster we'll have a hard time beating."

I raise my hand and everyone stares at me. "The next fiend." I state nervously.

"Come on." Jordan said in a bored voice. "What's to worry about it'll probably just be some giant bird."

I shake my head. "Alishia, do you remember what the robot said to us?"

"Not entirely. It started as an explanation but it soon just became random static filled words."

"I know. I just remembered something it said. Now I know it's the name of the next fiend."

"Well spit it out already."

"Tiamat." I tell them. Then the room goes silent.

"What's the big deal?" Donald asks. "It's just another monster."

"No she's not." I tell him. "She's a goddess whose body was used to form the land and sea an-"

"What are you talking about?" Unne's brother asked. "Tiamat is just a huge dragon with five heads."

I sat in silence for a while and cheered at the top of my lungs. "Alright! This is so going to be a piece of ca-"

"Did I mention that she's supposedly invincible?" Unne's brother asked.

"Ah, damnit." I sat back down. "Oh whatever, let's just head to Melmond and talk to Dr. Luna."

"UNNE!" Everyone yells at me.

"Whatever!" I throw my hands into the air and start walking out.

"Okay." Alishia began, increasing the volume of her voice to be heard over the pouring rain. "This poses a problem. How can I even hope of steering this thing with all this wind and rain?"

"I have an idea." I told her. "Jordan, can you help me? I'm going to try to put a bubble around the airship."

"How do you expect me to be of any use?" She asked.

"I'm not the only one with upgraded magic." I explained. "When Bahamut made us into what we are now, our powers increased. I can now cast some spells with the slightest movement. I can also do this." I snapped my fingers and the rain stopped pelting us. Instead, it moved away and hit the ground around us. I waved my hand and the rain began pelting us again. "Unfortunately it can't keep out monsters like protect can."

"Maybe I should just cast Protera on the ship." She said nervously. She walked over and started to cast the spell. I watched her, wondering if something was wrong.

"She didn't gain any special powers like we did." Donald told me. "You gained the ability to use magic easier, Alishia became stronger, and I..." He trailed off into silence, staring at his hand. Then he patted me on the shoulder. "Thanks, dude. She really needed this." Then he walked away.

I stood there in confusion. "She needed to be ordered to use her magic?" I look behind me. Alishia and Tom Barry shrug. "Oh well. On to Melmond!"

"Wow!" I exclaimed in surprise. "This place has... not changed a bit. Seriously, did we fix anything last time?"

"Maybe the rain stopped them from being able to repair the town." Jordan offered. I shot her a skeptical glance. "It's possible."

"Whatever." Donald interrupted. "Let's just find Dr. What's-his-face before we catch our death in this rain." He was shivering so hard that his armor was rattling.

"Last time he was in the graveyard." Jordan stated. "Knowing that weirdo he probably still is."

"In the game he barely moves." I thought for a minute. "But it _is_ raining. I don't remember that happening." I looked at Alishia. "Your call. What do we do?"

She looked at all of us. "Let's get out of this rain." We all agreed and headed for the inn. When we got inside, it was just as dusty and dirty as ever. Only now, it was all wet from the leaks in the roof.

"DID WE FIX _ANYTHING_?" I shouted as I see the place. "How is it that nothing has changed?"

Many of the guests glared at us, me particularly. "Of _course_ nothing's fixed. All you did was restore the earth, not our houses."

I thought for a moment. "Oh yeah. Anyways, has anyone seen Dr. Unari?"

"It's _Unne_! Why is it that _no one_ can remember that? I'm the smartest person in the world and no one bothers to remember my name?" He walked up to us. "Next time someone needs a favor from me, Dr. Unne, I'm going to make them memorize my name first!"

"Fine then!" I yelled. "Dr. Unne! Are you happy now? Just teach us how to speak Lufenian, dude!"

"I can't without the…!" He stared at me. "Just a moment. Let me see that tablet…" He held out his hand. I gave him the Rosetta Stone. He stared at it and hops in surprise. "This… this is the Rosetta Stone! This makes it possible to decipher Lufenian!" He studied it. "Hmm… Yes, of course! THAT'S what it was! It all makes sense!" He paced around, reading it. Then he looked back to us. "Here, allow me to express my gratitude by teaching you Lufenian."

"Yay!" We all cheered. Then I felt something hit me in the back of the head and I passed out.

I woke up in a room with a snoring Donald. My head was pounding. "Ow!" I groan. "I feel like I got hit in the head with a huge rock."

"That's because you did." Dr. Unne told me. "It seems that the stone was infused with a magic spell that can teach the language to anyone instantly. All it requires is contact with a person's skull."

"So you used that as an excuse to bludgeon me to the ground with a heavy rock?" He looked away as if he didn't hear the question. "Tell me, doctor…" I clench my teeth. "…do you know many cooking recipes?"

"There is nothing that I, the amazing Dr. Unne, do not know." He put a hand to his chest and raised an arm to the sky. "But why do you ask?"

I lifted my hand and created a fireball in it. "I just wanted to know a good way…" I glared at him. "…TO FRY A DOCTOR!" He ran away in fear. I stood and walked over to Donald's bed. He was sleeping so peacefully, I felt a bit of guilt for having to wake him up… only a bit. I snapped my fingers and casted a Thunder spell on him. He fell out of bed.

"Whoosa-whuzzah!" He looked around. "Oh, good morning, Bram. How'd you sleep?"

"Good _morning_? How'd I _sleep_?" He was obviously confused by my rage. "If you hadn't forgotten, there's a storm we have to fly through that gets worse by the second. Now tell me…" I grab him by the collar. "WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO STAY THE NIGHT INSTEAD OF GOING TO LUFENIA!"

His head spun from my yelling. "It was Alishia's idea." I dropped him. "She said we needed to rest. Getting here took a lot out of us."

I sighed. "True enough." I walked outside. "Get ready. I'm going to get the girls so we can leave."

"Seriously? You're going to cast Thunder on me and expect me to be unharmed enough to set off immediately? At least give me a potion or something!"

"You don't need it!" I told him.

I sighed and looked at his small injuries. "True." He put a hand to his chest. "Cure." He muttered and magic covered his entire body. All of his injuries disappeared. He looked at me. "Jordan's not the only one who can heal people now." He grinned dumbly.

"Idiot." I glare at him. "You better not use magic unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Why?" He asked. I shot another bolt of electricity.

"You and Alishia are the physical attackers. We don't need you two to tire yourselves out with magic."

"Then why'd you give her that magic necklace? Huh?" I shot him again. "Quit doing that! The really hurts, you know!"

"Suck it up." I told him. "Otherwise you won't last five seconds."

"Five seconds in what?"

I glare at him. "In a fight with me." He looked dumbfounded. "I want to see who's really better. The kid with the sword, or a powerful mage."

Donald laughed. "Of course it's the guy with the sword. In a bunch of fantasy stories, the knight always beats the evil wizard."

"That's only because good always wins in those worlds. That's why I want us to fight. We're both good."

"Sounds like fun." He smiled wider. "I can't wait."

I stared at him for a second. I shot one last lightning bolt before leaving.


End file.
